MRLD, A RWBY Story Volume One
by Cpt. Dreyeks
Summary: Who is Team MRLD? Watch as its members start their journeys to becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses and join on their quest to becoming the best and strongest Hunter team at Beacon Academy. Reused summary from the trailer story 'cause I can't think of anything different.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One: The Robbery**_

Morgan POV

On a dark and lonely night in Vale City, a teen of seventeen was walking through the city streets. This teen had an air of strength and power about him. He wore dark red plate armor on his torso, shoulders and arms. He wore a lighter red leather jacket and pants under the armor. On his belt was a sheathed sword.

The teen had a shock of unruly reddish brown hair from which two orange and black tiger ears were showing. An orange and black striped tiger tail was also swinging behind him. His ears were flattened against his skull in apparent annoyance and his golden eyes scanned the multitude of closed storefronts, looking for something.

As he walked, he stretched and yawned. "Damn. Can't believe every single shop's closed. Load of bullshit." he said finally.

He removed his scroll from his pants' pocket and opened it, browsing through it absentmindedly. As he looked through his scroll, he heard a commotion. He looked up.

He saw a bunch of white suited goons robbing a shop called From Dust Till Dawn. The teen became very annoyed. "Really? You have got to be fucking kidding me. The only Dust shop I like in this shithole is being robbed? Fuck." he griped.

He contemplated just moving on and going back to his apartment. After all, it wasn't his business that the human's shop was getting robbed. But he was one of the few humans who didn't piss the teen off and he didn't discriminate against Faunus.

"Damn it." he hissed as he walked up to the goons. "Hey. Get away from the shop and return the Dust you stole." he commanded.

The leader of the goons, a woman in a form fitting white bodysuit, turned to him. "And who are you, boy?" she demanded.

"Name's Morgan Rubrum. You?"

The woman laughed and shook her head. "I'm not surprised you don't know who I am. But you've wondered into an operation far above your paygrade. Not that you'll recognize the name, but I am Chatte Blanc. Men! Eliminate this pest." she said.

At her command, the goons stopped what they were doing and converged on Morgan, drawing swords and knives. The Faunus teen grinned, however. "You think these low level grunts are gonna kill me? Well, you clearly don't know who you're dealing with." he stated.

He launched himself off the ground, reached the first goon in less than a second and roundhouse kicked the poor bastard into the brick wall across the street, where he crashed with enough force to leave a small crater. Morgan straightened and looked back to Blanc. "You sure you wanna tangle with me?"

Blanc looked bored. "Really? You kick a goon into a wall and think you're hot shit? How about this: whoever can bring me this kid's head gets their cut for today's operation tripled!" she called out.

That got the grunts moving. After Morgan's display, they were hesitating but it seemed that their greed overrode their sense of self preservation. The remaining twenty goons rushed the Faunus teen with weapons drawn and murderous intent.

By the time the first grunt reached him, however, he was already gone. They looked up and saw he had jumped into the air. He thrust his hands forward, unleashing a massive gout of flames that took out about half of the goons.

He landed lightly on his feet and settled into a battle stance, raising his fists to guard his face. "It's gonna take a helluva lot more than that to kill me. Try to do better, huh? I want an actual challenge." the teen taunted. He detached his sword and sheath from his belt and tossed it to the shopkeep, who was watching all of this go down.

"Would you take care of that for me, old timer? I want to make this more interesting." he requested while putting his guard back up.

The remaining mooks rushed him and Morgan easily dodged all of their strikes. Some of them got close to hitting him when they aimed for his tail but he moved it at the last second and rewarded their "cleverness" by slapping them away with it.

After toying around with them for a couple more minutes, Morgan got bored and effortlessly brought down the last ten goons in a single strike.

When he looked back toward Blanc, she looked ready to either explode and/or kill. Either way, Morgan thought her expression was priceless. "I asked if you were sure you wanted to tangle with me. I'm not just some kid, you know." he smirked.

Blanc narrowed her eyes. "I guess if you want to kill someone properly, you have to do it yourself." she growled as she drew dual daggers from her belt.

Morgan grinned. "Hey, shopkeep! Gonna need that sword back now." he called out.

The old man obliged him by tossing back the sheathed sword, which he caught. He unsheathed the sword and attached the sheath to his left forearm and it unfolded into a shield. He settled back into his battle stance and the two combatants began circling each other.

As they did so, Morgan took stock of Blanc's appearance. She was tall and willowy, not appearing too strong but Morgan knew appearances didn't mean shit when it came to strength. She had waist length silver hair tied into a ponytail and gleaming silvery-grey eyes. Her white bodysuit was leather and zipped low to accentuate her… womanly features, likely to distract male opponents. What Morgan found interesting, however, was the pair of snow white cat ears on the top of Blanc's head.

"You're a Faunus but your goons are human. How come?" he asked.

Blanc snarled. "I don't have to tell you shit, boy. I just need to correct the mistake of said underlings of failing to kill you."

Morgan chuckled. "You'll find that's not an easy task."

Blanc snarled again and rushed Morgan, daggers swinging. He raised his shield to block the strikes and was surprised when he slid back a foot. "Damn! I can feel some actual power behind that. Which Academy did you go to?"

Blanc growled. "Shut up, shut up!" she yowled as she side kicked Morgan's shield, sending him flying. He crashed into the same wall he kicked the goon into earlier. The force of the impact made his shield fall off the magnet that was keeping it on his bracer.

The teen struggled to his feet. He looked down at his shield. "That thing never manages to stay on for an entire fight, does it? Oh, well. Don't need it anyway." he said as he rushed Blanc and slashed at her midsection. She backflipped away. Morgan kept advancing, aiming haphazard attacks toward Blanc and she kept dodging or batting his attacks away.

He snarled as his attacks were so easily dodged. He aimed another slash at Blanc, which missed of course, before backflipping away from the engagement. He unbuckled the straps on his armor and stripped it off.

Blanc looked at him incredulously. "You're taking off your armor? I'm assuming you want to lose?" she jeered.

"No, I wanna win. Damn hunks of metal are just slowin' me down." He jumped up and down, warming up and testing his speed. "Oh, that's _much_ better! All that metal really weighs a guy down, you know?" Morgan settled back into his battle stance.

Blanc rolled her eyes and settled into her own battle stance.

Morgan rushed Blanc again, much faster after he stripped off his armor. He launched a flurry of slashes toward her midsection but she was still easily dodging his attacks. "For fuck's sake! How are you so fucking fast?!" he snarled.

Blanc smirked smugly. Morgan kept on slashing and hacking toward the woman, making zero headway to actually hitting her. Morgan felt a familiar heat rise up around his hair and hands as his anger and frustration rose. He dropped his sword, trying to lose as much dead weight as possible to gain as much speed as possible.

He attempted to grab Blanc to keep her in one place so he could actually hit her but she kept dodging. The teen felt steam rise off his hands and hair as he became angrier and angrier. "Get back here!" he roared. He started launching fireballs from his hands in order to hit her while on the move but she twisted out of the way at the last second.

He caught up to Blanc for a second and went to punch her but she roundhouse kicked him in the ribs, sending him flying into another brick wall. He pulled himself out of the crater and glared at Blanc, molten gold eyes shifted to red. He flung his head back and roared into the night sky, yellow flames erupting out of his hands and hair, bathing the dark streets with a warm glow. He rushed Blanc yet again and managed to punch her square in the jaw and sent her flying into another storefront.

The now flaming teen walked slowly towards the cat woman. His punch had dazed her and she was shaking it off when Morgan grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her up to his eye level. He slammed her into the wall and started punching her in the face with all his might. Repeatedly. It wasn't long before he felt her Aura shatter but he kept going. He felt the bones in her face fracture and her blood sizzling away on contact with his flaming fist.

He raised his fist to punch her again when he felt an invisible force throw him into yet another brick wall and knock him out of Berserker Mode. He rubbed the back of his head as he pulled himself out of a wall for the third time that night.

"Ow, ow, ow! Fuckin' hell, I'm real tired of gettin' slammed into brick fuckin' walls." he griped. He looked toward Blanc and saw one Professor Goodwitch looking over her.

"Hey, Professor. What brings you here tonight?" he called out.

She turned her hawkish gaze toward him. "I heard something about a Dust robbery in progress and when I investigate, I find you here trying to murder the perpetrator. May I ask why you have decided to nearly kill Chatte Blanc?" she demanded.

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "You know this chick?"

Goodwitch rolled her eyes. "Not personally, no. But I do know that Chatte is the second in command of a notorious crime syndicate called Le Syndicat Blanc. They mostly deal in Dust and advanced technology. But that is beside the point. You haven't answered my question, Mr. Rubrum." she explained.

He shrugged. "She robbed the only Dust shop I like in this city, set her goons on me and pissed me off. She dead?"

Goodwitch narrowed her eyes. "Luckily for us both, no. If she was, you'd be tried for murder, you'd lose your spot at Beacon, the police would lose a lead and I would have to file even more paperwork than I already have to. Why were you even out here the night before the first day of term?"

"I was hungry and my fridge was empty. Speaking of which, I'm still hungry." he said.

Goodwitch rolled her eyes again. "Of course you are. There should be a Mistral place down the block that's still open. Make sure you don't get into any more trouble, alright?"

He picked up his armor and weapons and started walking toward the place that Goodwitch indicated and waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

As he walked down the street, he sensed someone watching him. He whipped around, drawing his sword. "Hey! I know you're there, dumbass! Sneakin' up on me ain't a good idea, ya know!" he called out.

He heard a chuckle to his left and turned to face it. "Rather observant, aren't you?" the source of the laugh said. It was a woman very similar looking to Blanc, only slightly older, in a white suit and with a fluffy dog's tail.

"You've proven to be quite the thorn in my side. You've taken down my sister _and_ stopped tonight's operation. If she was a crucial part of my plans, you would die here and now. However, I have more important things to do than to waste my time with you. But I'm warning you now: interfere with my plans again and I will _not_ hesitate to kill you. Good evening, Mr. Rubrum." she said before leaping away with a speed Morgan couldn't currently hope to match.

He stared at where she disappeared and vowed to find this woman again.

* * *

AN: It is finally done! I want to know what you guys think of this chapter! What I did right and wrong, all that jazz.

So, who is this mysterious dog tailed woman and who is Le Syndicat Blanc? Review and let me know what you think! Until the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two: Beacon**_

Morgan POV

Morgan was irritated. After his fight with Blanc the previous night, he had decided to look her up. Nothing. He found nothing. He couldn't understand it. Goodwitch had told him that Blanc was part of a notorious crime syndicate but he couldn't find shit about Le Syndicat Blanc or Blanc herself. If they were well known, how come he couldn't find anything about them?

He lashed his tail. "Load of bullshit." he growled, closing his scroll after another failed search. This attracted some stares from the other teens on the Bullhead but he ignored them. The Bullhead was to take them to Beacon Academy to start the term. He wasn't much for air travel but that was only because he felt a bit claustrophobic in most vehicles, especially with a lot of people in there with him, like now.

He turned his focus to the news that was playing. "The robbery last night was led by a little known criminal named Chatte Blanc, who was captured after she was defeated by a Huntsman candidate named Morgan Rubrum, who was unavailable for comment. Back to you, Lisa." the anchorman said.

"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, the White Fang has disrupted yet another civil rights demonstration. The formerly peaceful organization continues to become increasingly violent."

Morgan stopped paying attention after that. He didn't care about the White Fang and them being idiots. He couldn't believe that he had said that Blanc was a little known criminal. It didn't make any sense. He could only assume that Goodwitch had lied to him.

Speaking of the Professor, a hologram of her popped up, interrupting the news feed, which had transitioned to weather. "Hello and welcome to Beacon! My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." the recording imparted.

He felt the Bullhead shift as it changed directions. Some of the students rushed to look out the window. He discreetly moved closer to the exit as he knew they were close to getting off this bucket of bolts.

A few minutes later, the Bullhead touched down and Morgan stepped off of it, along with the other potential students. He took stock of his surroundings. They were deposited onto a long, wide avenue leading up to the main academy buildings and their large, impressive main doorway, which opened up to a large amphitheater surrounded by a double ring of colonnades bisected by the main avenue with the outer ring rising high over the main entrance to the academy itself. The avenue was marked with trees and flag-draped light-poles, as well as a number of impressive aqueduct-like features and archways.

In front of the entrance to the main amphitheater was a large statue and fountain of a Huntsman and Huntress standing atop a rock, beneath which a Beowolf cowered. There was also a large circular pond feature surrounded by a pathway and a garden of red trees. He also saw a massive tower just beyond the main buildings. The tower was capped by a number of green spheres or lights forming a kind of beacon, probably where the school got its name, as well as a complicated looking clockwork device.

Morgan knew that Ozpin's office was in that tower and he wondered how he could deal with the noise of that giant clock.

He walked as he thought. He'd heard that students at Beacon must go through an initiation of sorts. He wondered what it would be. When he was still at Signal, he had asked Professors Branwen and Xiao Long what it would entail but said they couldn't do it justice.

Morgan's tail lashed again. He was getting real damn tired of not getting the information he wanted. Was it that hard for people to tell him what he wanted to know? More to the point, why couldn't he get _accurate_ information?

His thoughts were interrupted by sounds of arguing behind him. He turned to face it.

"I told you to leave me alone!" a human girl insisted. She was wearing a form fitting brown leather bodysuit with a matching belt and boots. She had two dagger sheaths attached to her back and had pitch black eyes and close cropped black hair.

The source of her annoyance was a human boy wearing dark yellow leather winklepickers, tattered yellow jeans and a dark gold leather jacket over a grey undershirt. He had his light blond hair done up in a glossy pompadour. Two large cheese grater-esque gauntlets were attached to his gold belt. "Ched Caseus…" Morgan whispered to himself. Then he grinned. This was going to be _fun_.

"Come on, baby! I know ya can't resist a swell guy like me! Think about it. _I_ get a hot ass girlfriend and _you_ get an even hotter boyfriend! It's a win-win!" Caseus replied.

The girl scowled and rolled her eyes. "So you're an asshole _and_ a narc. Great to know. I'm leaving now." she said as she started to leave, only to be stopped by Caseus reaching out and grabbing her arm.

"Hey, I didn't say you could leave!" Caseus said playfully.

The girl didn't turn around. "You have ten seconds to let go of me before I break every bone in your body." she warned with a very dangerous edge in her voice.

Caseus laughed and shook his head. "Sure, sure! Like you could do that! Hate to break it to ya, dolly, but I was the second strongest guy in my class at Signal, so there ain't a whole lot you could do to me, ya dig?"

Morgan felt the girl's Aura spike then the ground started to shake a little. Judging from the lack of reactions, he and the girl were the only ones to feel it so he guessed that she was the cause of the shaking. He decided to intervene before the girl could make good on her threat.

"Hey, Cheese Grater!" he called out.

Caseus's eyes widened in abject terror and he recoiled from the girl immediately and the shaking stopped. "Rubrum! Hey! What's up, dude?" he asked nervously.

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Cut the shit, Cheese Grater. The girl said to leave her alone so you leave her alone. You got that? Or am I gonna have to give you another… physical reminder of what happens when you piss me off?" he warned.

The blond teen became even more fearful, if possible. "No, no! I dig ya, I dig ya! I'll, uh, just be on my way now!" he exclaimed while walking away.

The feline teen's eyes followed Caseus as he walked off.

"I didn't need your help. I could've taken him." the girl huffed.

Morgan snorted. "I know that. I just didn't want rocks chucked my way. What's your name, anyway?" he asked.

The girl was visibly shocked. "R-Robin. Tori Robin. How'd you know I can manipulate earth?"

The Faunus teen laughed. "I could feel your Aura spike and the ground shake and no one else could! Even if that tremor was natural, which it wasn't, it wouldn't have waited until your Aura spiked to start and it stopped as soon as Cheese Grater let go of your arm! Too many coincidences in too short a time frame." he pointed out.

The girl, Robin, scoffed. "You're certainly observant."

He twitched his ears. "Of course. By the way, is Robin your given or family name? You look Mistral and I want to make sure so I don't fuck up."

She looked surprised at that one. She laughed it off, though. "Given name. I have to tell most people that, you're the first who's ever asked."

"Well, if you piss someone off, you want to make sure it's intentional, right?"

She giggled. "You're pretty funny… Oh, I forgot! I never got your name."

Morgan smirked. "Morgan Rubrum. Resident badass, slayer of monsters and dispeller of assholes who won't leave you the fuck alone."

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask, who was that guy and why did he just about piss his pants when he saw you?" she wondered.

Morgan sighed. "Jeez. We should probably walk and talk. We need to get to get movin' and find wherever we're supposed to go."

Robin nodded and they began to walk.

"That was Ched Caseus. A couple years ago, he wasn't terrified of me. In fact, he bullied me. At least, he tried to. At first, he just annoyed me. Then annoyance turned to frustration then anger then rage then I had enough and beat him the fuck up. Hospitalized him. Course, I got a few month's worth of detention and was lucky I wasn't expelled. Plus side, though: I basically traumatized him so much that he does not want to risk even more broken bones."

Robin blinked in surprise. "Damn. Remind me never to get on _your_ bad side."

Morgan laughed. "Haha, yeah. Shoulda' told that to Blanc last night. Whew, that fight did _not_ end well for her." he chuckled darkly, his tail swishing behind him.

Robin raised her eyebrows. "So you're _that_ Morgan Rubrum. I am learning all sorts of things about you today. How come her mugshot looked like she got smashed through five separate brick walls and then concrete pillars?"

He ran his hands through his unruly hair, messing it up further. "Cause she really pissed me off and I don't handle people pissing me off. At all. If Goodwitch hadn't been there after I lost control, Blanc would be in a worse place than jail right now. Not like that outcome would bother me, though. I say the bitch deserves it." he explained.

They walked in silence for a couple minutes. It was odd. He was opening up to someone. A _human_. He was supposed to hate humans. Most of them, anyway. But there was something about this girl that made him not hate her guts immediately. As for if he'd hate her guts eventually, well. Jury was still out on that one.

His thoughts were interrupted by someone impacting his side. He looked to his right and saw a tall, tanned, muscular girl with a light blue bodysuit and skirt under gold armor on her shins, thighs, chest, right shoulder and forearms, as well as tan sandals. Her hair, which was in a braided ponytail, and eyes were a dark blue and she wore dark purple eyeshadow. She was rubbing her shoulder and closing her scroll.

She looked him up and down with thinly veiled contempt and scoffed. "You'd better watch where you're going, _Faunus_." she sneered.

The feline Huntsman's eyes flashed from gold to scarlet and back again. "Well, sorry, _princess_, but I was. You blindsided me. Maybe don't look at your scroll when you walk and you'll experience a lot less collisions." he growled.

The tanned girl narrowed her eyes. "Heiress."

"What?"

"It's heiress. I am the heiress of Aquaria Munitions. If you use any sort of firearm, my family's company makes the rounds or shells for it." she explained.

Morgan cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. You got a name, heiress?"

"Donna Aquaria. My name is Donna Aquaria."

"Morgan Rubrum. You might recognize the name, it was on the news on the ride here."

She scoffed and looked him up and down again. "Yes, I did. I have to say, I expected someone more… reputable." she jeered.

Morgan's ears twitched in annoyance. "Now, what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" he demanded loudly.

Aquaria chuckled. "Well, you don't exactly look like a stand up citizen, do you? Your colors are reminiscent of blood, your hair is all scruffy, you reek of smoke and don't even get me started on your ears and tail." she listed.

Morgan's tail lashed. "First off, there's nothing wrong with a red color scheme, even if it is a little dark. Second, my hair's always been like this, so what is it's a bit messy? It's not like it's dirty. Third, my Semblance is fire based so I can't exactly get rid of the smell a hundred percent. Last, what the fuck is _wrong_ with my ears and tail?!" he snarled.

The heiress rolled her eyes and waved him off. "Oh, everyone with common sense knows that all Faunus are criminals. You probably only fought Blanc as a territory dispute. You animals tend to do that sort of thing." she stated.

His ears flattened against his skull and his tail lashed and a low growl emanated from his throat. His gold eyes once again shifted to scarlet and stayed there. Steam rose from his hands and hair. "Aquaria, I am going to tell you this once and once only. I am not a criminal. Just because I am a Faunus does not mean you can say shit like that. Not all Faunus are like the White Fang. They are extremists and terrorists. I am not apart of them. They are idiots for acting like that. We all know that. I fought _Blanc_ because she was robbing a shop I like. Okay?"

The tanned heiress raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Only because she was robbing a shop you like? Really? No other special reason? Like doing the right thing because it's the right thing or it's your civil duty?" she questioned.

Morgan was confused. "Yeah? What does the reason matter as long as it wasn't me being a criminal?" he asked, his eyes turning back to normal and the steam dissipating.

Robin laughed. "Donna, Morgan seems to be more of a neutral figure."

Aquaria balked and turned back to Morgan. "So, you'd help an enemy if the opportunity arose?!" she demanded.

"If I wasn't already fighting them? Possibility. Doesn't matter to me _who_ or _what_ I'm fighting or _why_ as long as I get to fight strong guys. Nothing's worse than fighting a weak opponent. That's boring. No challenge in it." he stated.

Aquaria looked at Morgan then Robin then back to Morgan. "You two are crazy. I'm out of here. Sayonara and let's hope we _don't_ get put on the same teams!" she said as she nearly ran away from the pair.

Morgan stared at her retreating frame. He already knew they weren't going to get along. She seemed strong, though, so he figured that she could be a pretty decent fight in the future. Who knew. His thoughts were interrupted again by Robin laughing.

He turned to face her again. "What is it?"

It took her a bit to calm down. "You are without a doubt both the oddest and most interesting guy I've ever met. Not that that's a bad thing. It's just gonna take me awhile to get used to you." she explained.

Morgan cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean, 'get used to me'? It sounds like you wanna be friends with me." he said, shuffling his feet.

"I thought we already were? I think you're pretty cool and it seems that you don't hate me so I think it's a no-brainer that we're friends already. Besides, the only other people I know here are major douchebags, so I'd rather hang out with someone I like."

Morgan felt a weird sort of heat rise in his cheeks. "O-oh. Okay. Friends, huh? With a human? This'll be a new experience." he muttered.

Robin laughed again. "Never been friends with a human, eh? Well, don't let Aquaria and Caseus give you the wrong first impression. Not all of us are assholes."

Morgan nodded. "I suppose not. Most of you, though. People in general, human _and_ Faunus, are assholes. That's mostly why I prefer to stick to myself. Things are less complicated when you're alone, you know?"

Robin chuckled sadly. "Yeah. I can understand that feeling." she trailed off. She was quiet for a couple seconds before shaking her head as if to clear it. "We should get moving. I'm pretty sure we have to get to some auditorium." she stated, changing the subject.

Morgan looked at her, concerned, but shrugged it off and started walking with her again.

They didn't even get two feet before they heard another new voice.

"Excuse me! Please wait up! I'm looking for my friend. Can you help me find her?" the voice called out.

They turned around to see who it was. This one was a pale, thin boy with buzzed lilac hair, purple eyes and wearing a purple military-esque uniform. It was reminiscent of an old navy's dress blues from the Great War nearly a hundred years ago.

Morgan sighed heavily. "Alright, what does your friend look like?"

"She's a bit taller than me, she's tanned, dark blue hair and eyes, purple eyeshadow and she is scary strong looking. Her name's Donna Aquaria." the boy said.

Robin and Morgan shared a look. "We just saw her a couple minutes ago. She went that way." Robin informed, pointing to the main building.

The boy heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you, I've been looking for her for hours. My name is Lilo Ehre, heir of Ehre Firearms. Pleasure to meet you." he said while extending a hand out for both Robin and Morgan to shake.

Robin shook it first and introduced herself. Morgan did the same.

Ehre started in the direction they pointed out when Morgan stopped him. He turned. "Yes? What is it?"

"Your friend? Aquaria? She's a bitch. Keep her in line would you? I won't hold myself responsible if she says something to really piss me off." the feline Huntsman warned.

The lilac haired teen looked confused. "Okay? Sorry if she said anything that offended you. Donna's always been abrasive. It's just her way, I have no control over that. I'll try to get Donna to be less mean but I can't make any promises. We really do need to get moving, though. We're supposed to be in the auditorium. Goodbye!" he said while running off.

Morgan stared at his retreating frame. "Hmm. He's not a bad kid. It's Aquaria I don't like. Something's off about her." he said as they started walking again.

Robin turned to him. "What do you mean?"

The feline Huntsman ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know. She sounds pretty anti-Faunus but… something in her voice. Something makes it sound like she doesn't quite believe the rhetoric. But it also sounds like she _does_ believe it, a hundred percent. I don't know. Whatever. Let's keep moving."

They managed to make it to the correct building without too much issue or further interruption. They made it into the auditorium just as a tall man walked onto the stage.

From what Morgan could see, he was middle aged, with a light complexion and sharp facial features. His tousled hair was silver and his eyebrows were dark. He wore an unzipped black suit over a dark green, buttoned vest and green shirt and a cowl around his neck. He had shaded glass spectacles and a small purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl. He also wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. Morgan knew him to be Professor Ozpin.

His brown eyes scanned the massive room and his gaze locked onto Morgan for an extra second before clearing his throat and readied the microphone in front of him. "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

He paused for a couple seconds. Morgan heard the students whisper among themselves, trying to figure out what he meant. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." he continued. Ozpin then walked off the stage and left the auditorium.

Goodwitch, who was also there, stepped up to the microphone. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Morgan could feel something off about Ozpin. He just couldn't tell what. But something about the man made Morgan's skin crawl.

*A few hours later*

Morgan walked into the ballroom, bag of clothes and armor in hand. He had removed his armor, leather jacket and undershirt and changed his pants out for a pair of knee-length shorts, the only item of clothing he currently had on besides his underwear.

He made his way over to Robin, where the rest of his things were; scroll, weapons, etc. As he walked, he noticed many of the other first years staring at him. His golden eyes stared back. He stopped and waited. After about a minute of them staring, he had had enough.

"What?! Why are you staring at me?!" he demanded.

They all went back to whatever they were doing before he entered the room. His tail lashed and ears twitched. Apart from one reason, he could not figure out why they were staring at him! It made him rather uncomfortable.

When he got his and Robin's cots, he sat down heavily and set the bag of clothes down. "Did you see that? They were all staring at me like I was some kind of circus attraction! Yes, I'm a little out of the ordinary. I get it. After all, it's not everyday you see a Faunus with two animal traits or even a Tiger Faunus but they could have the common decency to not stare. Or at least not make it so obvious." he grumbled.

Robin laughed. He whipped his head towards her. "What?! What's so damn funny?!" he snarled, pride a bit wounded. Friends shouldn't laugh at other friends. At least, that was what he was led to believe from his precious few friendships.

Robin laughed harder. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's amazing to see someone so oblivious to this kind of thing." she explained.

Morgan narrowed his eyes. "Oblivious to _what_?"

Robin shook her head. "Jeez. They weren't staring at you because you're a Faunus. There're other Faunus in the room and they're not being stared at. No, they're staring at you because you're _hot_!" she said.

"But the air conditioning's on and I'm not using my Semblance. How can I be hot?" Morgan asked, confused.

Robin looked like she just about had an aneurysm. "I-I can't tell if you're serious about that and that is very concerning."

Morgan cocked his head to the side. "Of course I'm serious. Why would I not be?"

Robin slapped her face with her palm and sighed. "Okay. I can't believe I'm explaining this to a seventeen year old. Look, when two people love each other, or even just like each other… D'oh, forget it! Do you not know about sex and attraction?!" she whisper yelled.

Morgan furrowed his eyebrows. "…yes? But, what does that have to do with being hot? That doesn't make any sense." he stated.

Robin's eyebrows twitched. "Oh, my gods, you're serious. Ugh. Look, 'hot' is a figure of speech used to express how much one person finds another person attractive. How have you not figured that out yet? Girls must have been throwing themselves at your feet with _that_ kind of body. I mean, hot _damn_, your six-pack has a six-pack."

The feline teen snorted. "There… _were_ a few girls who tried to ask me out back at Signal. But I always turned them down. None of them could interest me _or_ compete with me. Well, one could compete with me. She was a long haired blond firespitter. She could take a hit and dish right back, twice as hard, same as me." he sighed, reminiscing. "But I wasn't into her like that and neither was she. Besides, it wouldn't have worked out even if we were. She's a year younger and her uncle, who was a teacher at Signal, was protective as hell. Man, he gave me such a chewing out the first time we sparred. 'You could've hurt her,' 'you're supposed to be a role model,' crap like that." he said, grinning as he remembered.

He shrugged his shoulders. "But, in the end, we were better as classmates and sparring partners. We weren't meant for each other." he sighed contentedly.

He could feel Robin staring at him. He turned to look at her. "What? What is it?"

She seemed to struggle with the words. "Well… I've heard you talk about a childhood bully. I've heard you talk about someone who was clearly _almost_ a friend. But what about other parts of your life?" she asked.

He looked at her quizzically. He shrugged. "Eh, sure, why not. What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Well, what about your parents?" she asked.

Morgan's expression hardened. "I don't want to talk about my parents." he said curtly.

Robin cocked her head to the side. "Why not? I'm sure they're not _that_ bad. I mean, yeah, everyone hates their parents at some point, but-"

"Shut up. _Now_." he interrupted, a steely edge in his voice.

"W-what?"

"You don't know a fucking _thing_ about me or my parents. I don't want to talk about them because they're _dead_. I loved them. With all my fucking _heart_! But they were taken from me by the greed of the Schnee Dust Company. This conversation is over." he growled, barely keeping his voice to indoor levels.

He laid down on his cot and pulled the covers over him. He had hoped Robin would've been different, that she would have respected his privacy. But, at the end of the day, all humans are the same; nosy and arrogant. But… something in the back of his mind was telling him to give her another chance. _Ugh, I'll deal with _that _in the morning. I need to sleep_! he thought.

He rolled over on his cot, facing away from Robin, and allowed the dark embrace of sleep to take him away.

* * *

AN: And that is the second chapter done! Very dialogue heavy and no fight scene, but I needed to introduce some characters.

To Guest DCDGojira, yes Team MRLD will meet RWBY but they have to get through their first year first. Morgan and crew are a year older than RWBY.

I've already teased a character relationship with the blond firespitter. If anyone can guess who Morgan was talking about, I'll give them a shout out. Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three: Initiation **_

Robin POV

Robin sat up in her cot, stretched and yawned. She'd had better starts to her day. She looked towards Morgan's cot. He was already up, it was likely he had gotten up with the sun, as Faunus tend to do. They tended to have stronger internal clocks than humans.

Robin wasn't the last to get up but she was far from the first. She picked up her bag of clothes and her weapons and made her way to the co-ed locker room a couple hallways down from the ballroom, hoping to find Morgan to apologize for the night before.

She had spoken out of turn without realizing the emotional significance of her words and she needed to salvage her relationship with him if they were to remain friends.

She refound her locker, Number 518, and proceeded to change quickly. Once her boots were tied, bodysuit zipped and dagger belt clipped on, she started to look for Morgan again. She looked through nearly the entire locker room but couldn't find him. She was about to give up and recheck the ballroom when a Faunus girl with wasp wings stormed past her. She looked ready to kill, Robin wondered why she looked so upset.

She glanced back where the girl had come from and saw Morgan, tail lashing and ears flattened and looking a bit annoyed with his arms crossed. He was staring after the girl, seeming to make sure that she wouldn't come back. He noticed Robin and his expression visibly darkened. "Hey, _friend_." he growled, spitting out the word with as much venom as possible.

Robin flinched. Morgan's molten eyes were glaring right through her soul, it seemed. "Morgan, I-" she began but trailed off, fiddling with her hands as she struggled with the words.

The Faunus narrowed his eyes. "Well? What is it? Spit it out!"

She flinched again. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did without knowing the whole story. It was wrong of me to make that joke and I deeply apologize. Can we still be friends?"

Morgan leaned in to inspect the young ninja girl. His seemingly trademark scowl deepened. After a few moments, he straightened back up and sighed in exasperation. "Ugh, fine. Somethin' in my gut's telling me to give you a second chance, anyway. Don't know _why_, though. Anyone else, and you'd be shit outta luck. Whatever." he grumbled.

Robin giggled. Her smile fell, though. "Who was that girl?"

Morgan shrugged. "Don't know. Said her name was Wasperia Yellowjacket. Sounded like she wanted to team up. But I could smell her arousal. All she wanted was to sate her own desires at my expense. No, thank you. I ain't a plaything. For anyone." he growled.

Robin shook her head. "You are without a doubt the most guarded person I've ever met. It wouldn't hurt you to open up a little, you know."

Morgan sent her a sidelong glance. "Like I did last night?"

Robin sighed. "That's not fair and you know it. I've already apologized."

The feline warrior sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. Sorry. It's just that, whenever I open up to anyone… I end up getting burned. If you'll pardon the pun there. You're one of the few people, and fewer humans, that I don't hate. I wish I could tell you why. All this 'friends' stuff is kinda new for me. You're only the third friend I've ever had." he sighed.

The young ninja raised her eyebrows. "Who're the first two?" she asked.

Morgan flashed her a playful glare. "Don't you remember the last time you pried into my life, Robin? I don't know about you, but I'd rather not repeat the experience. In any case, they were… good friends. But I don't want to talk about them right now. Maybe later." he said.

Robin raised her hands in a mock defensive posture. "Okay, okay, fine! Let's grab a quick bite to eat before we're supposed to do this initiation thing."

Morgan flashed her a toothy grin. "Fine by me, I'm starving!"

Robin just rolled her eyes and they made their way to the cafeteria for food.

A little while later, they had eaten breakfast and were chatting in the cafeteria, exchanging weapon maintenance tips, favorite Dust types and rounds, different combat strategies and things like that.

_It's amazing how quickly he warmed up to me again. I thought he'd be angry for weeks, with how furious he got last night. Being friends with him is going to be interesting_. Robin mused. It really was amazing. With Robin's seismic sense, she could feel Morgan practically vibrate in pure fury. She couldn't understand where all that went.

Morgan's ears swiveled upward as Professor Goodwitch's voice came up on the PA. "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

Morgan groaned. "Damn, I was comfortable! Oh, whatever. Let's go, Robin."

The pair followed the rest of the students making their way to the cliff near the prestigious academy. The massive tower in the center of the school made Robin feel exceptionally small when she looked up at it. She wondered how long it took to build it.

"Why do you think we're going to a cliff?" the young ninja asked Morgan.

He shrugged. "Dunno. Could be anything, really. Personally, I'm hoping for a combat test. That's the whole point of this school, right? To learn how to fight? Well, I'm really lookin' forward to fightin' stronger and stronger guys!" he said, tail waving in excitement.

Robin laughed. Morgan's ears flattened to his skull and he shot a glare at Robin. "What?! What's so funny?!" he demanded.

Robin waved him off. "Nothing, nothing! It's just that your thought process is so simple."

The Faunus shrugged again. "So what? I ain't got time for complicated thoughts. Won't help ya in a fight. Ya either _do_ or _die_. No room for thinkin', is there?"

Robin thought about that. "I suppose you have a point there. But not thinking before you speak or act could lead to some major problems. Like, hurting people's feelings without meaning to or jumping right into a Grimm nest."

Morgan sighed and rolled his eyes. "I speak my mind. Ain't my fault other people take offense. Grow some thicker skin, I say. To your other point, I'm more than strong enough to fight my way out of a Grimm nest. Total cakewalk."

It was Robin's turn to roll her eyes. "Point: missing it. But whatever. Let's just get to this cliff." she said.

Morgan glanced at her, confused, but looked forward and kept walking.

The Mistral girl closed her eyes and reached ahead with her seismic sense to see how much further to the cliff. Professor Goodwitch was not joking when she said "cliff." The thing was massive! It overlooked a forest that stretched for miles, far exceeding her half mile radius. The cliff itself was at least a couple hundred feet tall and Robin thought she could feel caves deep under the cliff and school but that could just be her senses playing tricks on her. They were skirting the edge of her radius, after all, and her sense tended to get fuzzy that far out.

She also felt two people on top of the cliff but couldn't tell who they were. Her sense couldn't give her facial features. Her sensing was interrupted when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked to her right.

It was Morgan with a very confused expression. "Hey, you alright? You were walkin' with your eyes closed. How did you know where to go? We turned a couple times there."

Robin widened her eyes. She didn't know they had turned. Her body must have gone on autopilot. "I can sense seismic vibrations. I can 'see' out to about half a mile. It's how I'm able to manipulate earth without causing a rockslide or cave in or sinkhole. I instinctively reach out to detect which rocks to use that won't cause disaster for the area.

"However, for things outside my general vicinity, it requires more concentration. Hence, the closed eyes. When that happens, my body tends to go into autopilot to keep up my previous path, avoiding dangers and now, apparently, keeping up with a group." she explained.

Morgan blinked. Blinked again. "Huh. So, you're kind of like a human badger. How come you're named after a bird, then?" he asked.

Robin shrugged. "No idea. My mother said I reminded her of brown and immediately thought of a robin. She liked the name and it… stuck."

Morgan chuckled. "That's funny. Anyway, I think we're almost to the cliff. You spaced out for a while." he told her.

Robin looked in front of her. He was right. She saw the edge of the clifftop and Professors Goodwitch and Ozpin standing in front of, or behind, depending on your perspective, a series of silver tiles arranged in a long line, on which was etched the Vale insignia, two green axes set over two green sets of laurel leaves.

"Students, please step onto the tiles." Professor Goodwitch commanded.

The twenty some students complied with the command and stepped onto the tiles. Robin could sense some sort of catapult device under hers and guessed that they were going to launch her and the other first years into the forest below. Different than what she had planned for, but not impossible to manage.

Professor Ozpin cleared his throat. "Now that we are all here, I believe we can begin. For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." he began.

Professor Goodwitch stepped forward. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… _today_." she explained.

Robin heard Morgan make an odd humming sound from her left.

The aged headmaster spoke again. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

"Makes sense. That's standard for groups." Robin heard Morgan say to himself.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." the Professor continued. His words sent a wave of shock through the line of students.

Morgan made a sound that suggested he nearly choked on his spit at that news. "WHAT?!" he nearly screamed. His expression was a mix of shock and abject horror.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you _will_ die." It seemed that Professor Ozpin's words did little to restore Morgan's faith in the headmaster's sanity.

"What the fuck is _with_ this guy?" he whispered.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" the Professor explained while pacing the edge of the clifftop.

Morgan raised his hand, still looking very shocked and horror-struck. "Uh, yeah!"

However, Professor Ozpin steamrolled right through what Morgan had to say. "_Good_! Now, take your positions." he commanded.

It seemed Robin wasn't the only one to guess the professors would launch them into the forest, because the rest of the students settled into a ready pose, ready to draw weapons to execute their landing strategy.

The first student was launched as Morgan continued to try and ask his question. "Uh, Professor Ozpin? Did you say our partner will be the one we first make _eye contact_ with?!" the Faunus demanded.

"I did." the white haired man replied nonchalantly.

Morgan swallowed and was not paying attention as more and more students were launched at high speeds toward the forest below. "Don't you think that could form a few problem pairs?" Morgan supposed.

Professor Ozpin kept his expression blank. "I suppose that could happen, but this method of forming Hunter teams has been implemented since long before either of us were born and has worked well over the decades." he explained.

The professor seemed to contemplate something. "Good luck, Mr. Rubrum." he added.

Morgan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What? 'Good luck'? Why do-" he began but was cut off as his own catapult was activated, sending him flying. Robin could faintly hear him scream something along the lines of, "You are such an asshole!"

Robin barely had enough time to giggle before she herself was launched. Unlike Morgan, however, she was ready for it. She grinned as she prepared to make her landing.

* * *

Donna POV

Donna sailed through the air, gaining incredible lift despite the weight of her armor and muscle mass. As she started to lose that lift and fall into the forest below, she readied her valued trident and pressed a button on the shaft. The side prongs retracted into the weapon and the middle prong extended and formed a hook. A hook she used to grab hold of tree branches as she descended.

She hooked onto a final tree branch and spun herself around it to bleed off excess speed and launched off of it, landing on the forest floor with impeccable grace. She returned the weapon to normal and ventured out into the forest to complete her given task.

* * *

Lilo POV

As Lilo fell toward the ground at incredibly high speed, he extended his right hand to unleash a blast of air that slowed his acceleration and allowed him to set down onto his feet gently. He brushed off his clothes and looked up to see that-

* * *

Morgan POV

Morgan was tumbling through the air. "Shit! Fuck! Gods-dammit!" he shouted as he let off small puffs of flame to try and correct his trajectory. Once he was falling feet first, he let off two massive pillars of flame from his hands to slow himself down.

Once his speed was low enough, he cut power to the infernos and dropped onto a branch directly below him. He jumped from branch to branch, descending lower and lower into the forest. He jumped off a final branch just in time to see Robin raise an earth pillar to grab her feet and slowly lower her to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground, she kicked apart the pillar of rock and walked toward Morgan and placed her hands on her hips.

"That was a really badass entrance, you know." Morgan stated.

Robin chuckled. "I know! Guess this makes us partners, then."

Morgan shrugged. "Guess I'm okay with that, then." They turned northward and ventured off to gather the "relics" that Ozpin had mentioned.

* * *

Donna POV

The tanned heiress scanned the treeline as she searched for her longtime friend. Her senses were on high alert as she searched the forest for any sign of Grimm activity.

She didn't see anything currently but she knew that could change at any moment. Sparks played about on her hands as her anticipation for combat grew, her tensions rising. Her mother was expecting her to be team leader, so she couldn't fuck this up.

She ignored the various sounds of songbirds and squirrels, as she knew they were inconsequential in the long term. She ran a hand over her plaited hair to smooth it, to correct any imperfections. She was an Aquaria and that meant being perfect.

She saw a flash of purple and lilac to her right and whipped around, weapon instinctively on the ready. Once she recognized who it was, she stood down. "Lilo!" she cried out while crushing him in a tight bear hug.

Lilo made an odd choking noise. "Ah, Donna! Hey, I'm glad to see you, too, but you're wrinkling the blazer!" he exclaimed.

The Mistralan hugged him even tighter. "Don't care. I'm just glad we're partners."

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Donna. We do still need to get one of those relics." the lilac haired duelist pointed out.

Donna sighed and unwrapped her arms from around him. "I guess you're right. Have you seen any Grimm in the area?" the heiress asked as she scanned for the monsters herself.

He shook his head as he drew his saber and revolver. "No, which is odd. From what my older brother, Wein, told me, the Emerald Forest is supposed to be crawling with Grimm."

Donna snorted. "Isn't Wein the one who seemingly can't put down a bottle of wine?"

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Yes, my family's company is being handed over to a functional alcoholic. I have, indeed, made the connection. Being the youngest of five sons has its disadvantages. I fucking get it. Now, can we _please_ make our way to the temple?!"

Donna laughed again. "Okay, okay. Did Wein say what kind of Grimm are usually here?" she asked as the two teens worked their way through the forest.

"Beowolves and Ursai are the most common. But there have been Boarbatusk, King Taijitu and Nevermore sightings in the forest proper and Death Stalkers and Creeps have been seen in the caves. Best to limit our contact with Grimm altogether and make our way to the temple ASAP." he explained.

Donna again scanned the treeline. "Agreed. Let's move."

* * *

Morgan POV

A few miles away, Morgan and Robin had just about the same idea. "I don't suppose you can sense Grimm, huh?"

Robin turned to face him as they walked. "Actually, I can. I just can't sense any in the general vicinity. It's real odd. The population of Grimm has always been very densely packed. For Grimm activity to just _stop_, even in a small area, is highly unusual."

Morgan crossed his arms and sniffed the air. "They're there. I can smell 'em. Two Beowolves and an Ursa. Don't think they're movin', though, if you can't sense 'em."

Robin scoffed. "Oh, that is _not_ fair. How far away?"

The Faunus teen scented the air again. "Hard to tell. I'd say about… thirty feet to our left. Just in those bushes there." he said, pointing.

Robin followed his finger to the bushes he was pointing to. "Hmm. Gameplan?" she asked, sending him a sidelong glance.

Morgan bared his teeth in a feral grin. "I kill 'em." he growled before launching himself at the bushes. He landed a devastating uppercut to the smaller Beowolf that sent it flying into a tree and narrowly dodged a swipe from the Ursa. He pulled his sword out and flung it into the larger Beowolf's face, killing it. The sword dropped to the forest floor as the creature dissolved into black smoke.

He returned his attention to the Ursa as it swiped at him again. He dodged strike after strike, not because he needed to, no, he wanted to make the fight interesting. He decided he would kill the Ursa and remaining Beowolf with just his feet.

He backflipped to dodge a strike from the Beowolf and side kicked it in the face, cracking its mask of bone. It roared in pain and rage and swiped at him with a heavy paw. He dodged and roundhouse kicked it into the path of the Ursa's claws as it attempted to maim the young Huntsman. The Beowolf was slashed in half as the larger Grimm's claws shredded its hide like a knife to warm butter.

The Ursa charged at him as its packmate dissolved into black smoke. He again effortlessly dodged the bear like monster's swipes as it tried in vain to maul him. He kneed it in the gut and then axe kicked it in the face, snapping its neck and killing it, causing it to disintegrate. He took a moment for his adrenaline high to wear off and turned back toward Robin. "Well, that was fun. Let's go get those relics, now." he said, turning northward.

* * *

Lilo POV

The pair had stopped outside of a dark cave entrance. "Donna, this isn't where we're supposed to be. Ozpin said an abandoned temple. This is a cave." the uniformed teen pointed out. He was really quite annoyed. Donna had a way of getting sidetracked.

She scoffed, poking around the entrance with her trident. "Yes, Lilo, I know its a cave and not a temple. But who's to say there's not a temple inside it? Come on, let's explore! See what we can find." she countered.

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Fine, since you won't drop this until I agree. But I have a bad feeling about this cave. Something feels off." he said.

The tanned heiress scoffed again. "Lilo, you always have a bad feeling about _something_."

"I do _not_. You just don't listen to me."

"Whatever. Let's go!"

They entered the cave. Before they went too far in, Donna gathered some cave moss that was oddly dry and wrapped it around the prongs of her weapon and lit it with a small spark of lightning. She held it up like a torch.

As they went deeper into the cave, Lilo took the time to study the walls of the cave. It looked like they were carved by more than just water. And if he remembered correctly, and he was sure he did, dark caves were the preferred habitat of several types of Grimm.

"Donna, I think something lives here. These walls look like they've been scratched up by something. I think we should turn around." he told her.

She shook her head in annoyance and turned to face him. "Lilo, it's fine. Nothing is going to just pop out and get us. It is just a fucking cave. Okay?" she said.

Lilo heard something large shift around further in the cave. Donna must have heard it too, as she whipped around to search for its source. Dust and water fell from the ceiling as whatever the large thing was disturbed the cave. The water doused the makeshift torch on Donna's trident.

"Ah, shit!" she swore as she tried to relight it to no avail.

"Donna, it's too wet. You'll never get it to light." Lilo pointed out.

By the dim light of her electricity, he saw her glower at him. "Shut up! It isn't my fault it got wet!" she growled.

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Kind of is if you think about it. If you had listened to me, we'd still be outside where it's light out and we would be able to see. There's something _in here_, Donna, I know you heard it too. We need to get out of here."

"Lilo, you-! Wait a second. What's that?" Donna asked pointing to a big glowing yellow teardrop shaped object.

Lilo's stomach dropped. "That's not good!"

* * *

Morgan POV

The pair had finally made it to the temple, if you could call it that. It was more like some weathered bricks arranged in a circle in a clearing with some columnar pedestals inside the circle. There were small game pieces on some of the pedestals. The pieces looked similar to weapons, a couple of green swords, a yellow armored gauntlet, something that looked like a couple of gold wasp stingers stuck together, with the exception of a brown handbag. The pieces on the other pedestals had seemingly already been taken.

"Think these are the relics we're supposed to get?" Morgan asked Robin.

She nodded. "I'd say so. We're at the temple, these are relics. No brainer to me! Now, which one do we get?" she answered.

Morgan contemplated it for a couple seconds. "One of the swords." he said while picking up the sword piece closest to him. "Feels right."

His ears swiveled to his left as he heard screaming, weapons fire and something large moving through the forest. Fast. "You hear that, Robin?"

She shook her head. "No, but I sense it. Two other students, one guy and one girl, being chased by a Death Stalker. We're gonna have a big fight on our hands." she warned.

The feline Huntsman bared his teeth into a feral grin and drew his weapons, unfolding his sheath into a shield on his left forearm and readying the razor sharp sword. "This is gonna be _fun_!" he exclaimed.

The young ninja also drew her weapons and stared at Morgan like he was crazy. "You and I have completely different definitions of the word 'fun'. Whatever. Let's make this thing die."

He saw the students break the treeline first. It was Aquaria and Ehre! Ehre was just flat out running but Aquaria kept firing off bolts of lightning from her trident behind her. "Donna! I'm gonna kill you for this! I told you we shouldn't have gone into that fucking cave!" the purple haired teen, clearly upset.

"I got us to the temple didn't I?!" the tanned heiress screamed back, still firing off lightning bolts.

"And now we're getting chased by a giant fucking _scorpion_!"

Said scorpion monster broke through the treeline at that moment, its white bone armor cracked and covered in moss. The thing was huge, at least three times the size of the Ursa that attacked him in Atlas four years ago. It had to be very old, it was covered in scars.

Morgan shook his head. "Hey! Get out of the way!" he commanded.

They obliged him by rolling to the side, Ehre to the left and Aquaria to the right. Morgan drew his hands back and thrust them forward and let out a massive plume of flames from his palms that enveloped the giant scorpion monster. It roared in pain as the flames licked its exoskeleton.

The two other students had already run to Morgan and Robin's side as Morgan blasted the Death Stalker. "You got it! It's dead!" Aquaria cried out.

Ehre rolled his eyes. "It's going to take more than _that_ to kill a Death Stalker, moron!" he berated. "Even young Death Stalkers have incredibly thick armor plating and this one has to be ancient. We're going to need a lot more firepower to bring it down."

Morgan growled from the effort of sustaining his blast of fire. "Tactical assessment is all fine an' dandy, but can we hurry this up and get that firepower?! I'll run out of Aura before I burn through this thing's armor." he snarled.

He felt Robin's Aura spike and the ground shake. He cut power to his attack to see a pillar of earth launch the scorpion creature a few dozen feet, back into the trees. It landed with a very audible crash that scared birds into flying.

He heard someone retch and turned to see Robin drop to her hands and knees, clutching her stomach and coughing up spittle. "That thing isn't going to be dazed for long. You need to kill that thing quickly while I recover." she informed.

Ehre knelt beside her. "You okay? What happened?" he asked.

Robin laughed tiredly. "I can't really use my Semblance offensively, it uses up too much energy. And I put a lot of Aura into that attack. That thing was fuckin' heavy." she explained before going into another coughing fit.

Morgan's ears swiveled toward the trees as he heard the Death Stalker roar in anger and scuttle towards them. "Damn, you weren't kidding, it's already up. Era, Aquaria, what're your Semblances?" he demanded.

Ehre bristled at Morgan's pronunciation of his name. "It's 'Ehre' and I can manipulate air." he corrected.

Aquaria rolled her eyes. "I can manipulate both water and lightning. Why? What's your plan, Faunus?" she demanded.

Morgan growled. "To kick the shit out of you, if you call me that again. As for the Death Stalker, fire as much lightning at me as you can without passing out. I'm gonna flame broil that bastard." he explained, baring his teeth in a feral snarl.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aquaria stare at him as though he'd lost his mind. "You want me to do what?! That will drain all of your Aura and _kill_ you! I'm not going to jail for murder! No way, no how!"

The scorpion monster roared again as it broke the treeline. Thing was the size of a large trailer house and damn fast for that size.

Morgan sent her a scathing glare. "I can absorb energy from attacks, it won't kill me. Just do it before _that_ thing kills all of us! Or do you want to end up a smear on the ground?!" he bellowed.

Aquaria grit her teeth and thrust her right hand at him, palm out, and let loose a massive surge of electrical energy. The pain of it caught him off guard; so much so that he dropped to his knees and cried out in agony. He felt Aquaria about to cut power to it. "No, don't! I haven't collected enough energy yet! Keep goin'!" he ordered.

He was vaguely aware that she was firing lightning at the monster with her other hand, Ehre was blasting the creature back with torrents of air and even Robin had joined in, taking potshots at it with her daggers turned pistols.

"Aquaria! That's enough! I have enough energy!" he yowled, the electricity nearly frying his nervous system. He felt the attack cease. He slowly got up to his feet. "Everyone retreat into the treeline. Now. Things are about to get a little messy." he ordered, little electrical surges playing up and down his body.

All three of them reluctantly did so as he walked up to the Death Stalker, slowly drawing his blade. The creature made to follow them. "Hey, ugly! Yeah, I'm talkin' to you. You're gonna die here. By my sword." he said, diverting its attention to him.

He grinned as his Aura gleamed white as the energy from Aquaria's attack significantly multiplied his power. He placed his left hand on the blade and set it ablaze. He dashed forward, slicing at its bone mask, cracking it even further. But it wasn't dead. Not yet.

It swung one of its pincers at him and he backflipped over it. He shot another gout of flames at it in midair before coming down and delivering a devastating axe kick to its head, breaking off the right half of its mask, revealing its red fleshy face.

It swiped its pincers at him again and Morgan sliced them off at their point of connection, rendering them useless. It launched it stinger at him at lightning speed, forcing him to bob and weave to dodge it. Eventually, he managed to trap it between his left arm and his side and slashed off its stinger with his sword.

The Grimm recoiled in pain and roared its displeasure. Morgan grinned as his eyes flashed scarlet and he dashed forward, punching a hole into its face, grabbing its brain and ripping it out. The creature twitched for a couple of moments before dropping to the ground and then disintegrating.

Morgan laughed weakly. "Whew! That was fun! Shit, I'm so fuckin' tired…" he said as he suddenly became lightheaded and passed out.

* * *

Robin POV

"Morgan!" Robin cried out as she ran out of the treeline to help her new friend. She knelt beside him and checked his pulse.

"Well? What's the prognosis?" Donna asked, coming up behind them with Lilo.

Robin turned to them. "Alive but out cold. You could have held back just a little. All that lightning sent a massive shock to his system, he could've died!"

The tanned heiress rolled her eyes and scoffed. "And just what do you think he would've said _had_ I held back? You heard him; he expressly said it wouldn't kill him. While the Faunus can be many things, they usually know their limits. If he said he could survive a fight with two King Taijitu, he probably could. The Faunus may be mongrels but they're _not_ stupid."

Robin rolled her eyes. "Morgan just risked his life for you and you repay him by sending barbs and insults toward his race? He was right. You are a bitch." she derided while picking up her unconscious partner and making her way south toward the cliff.

* * *

Donna POV

Donna was incensed! Outraged! How dare that no name peasant call her such names! Sparks played about on her hands and hair and she raised her right hand and prepared to fire a bolt of lightning at the retreating girl.

Before she could do so, however, she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to face her lifelong friend with a stony expression and shaking his head. She came to her senses and slowly lowered her arm.

She turned to the ruins without another word and snatched a green sword piece off of its pedestal and followed Robin to the cliff with Lilo just behind. She still intended to make the other girl pay for this transgression, of course. But later. She could do that… later.

* * *

Morgan POV

*A few hours later*

Morgan stretched his very stiff joints to work the pain out. "Fuckin' hell, I've never actually taken a lightning bolt to the chest before. That hurt!" he griped.

Robin scoffed. "Of course it did, you dummy! You're lucky it didn't kill you."

Morgan shrugged. "Eh, you're probably right. Had to do it, though."

The ninja girl shook her head. "Whatever. Professor Ozpin is about to start."

The ceremony in the auditorium was rather long for Morgan's tastes, forming ten teams, including his own. The reactions were… interesting.

"Coco Adel. Fox Alistair. Velvet Scarlatina. Yatsuhashi Daichi." Ozpin called out, forming the seventh team of the night. The screen of the auditorium showed each of their profiles as the boys and girls were lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continued. "The four of you retrieved the brown handbag pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CFVY, led by… Coco Adel!"

The audience gave another round of applause, while the next set of four students walked up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces filled the screen.

"Ched Caseus. Hazel Holz. Devora Leone. Ranji Narang. The four of you have retrieved the yellow gauntlet pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CHDR, led by… Ched Caseus!" he announced and the audience erupted into applause again.

"Wasperia Yellowjacket. Alex Ble. Scorch Flame. Priscilla Royal. The four of you have retrieved the gold stinger pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team WASP, led by… Wasperia Yellowjacket!" Third verse, same as the first and second. The audience clapped and the next set of students took their places on the stage. In this case; Morgan, Robin, Ehre and Aquaria.

It seemed Aquaria was just as displeased as Morgan to be on the same team.

"Morgan Rubrum. Tori Robin. Lilo Ehre. Donna Aquaria. The four of you have retrieved the green sword pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team MRLD, led by… Morgan Rubrum!" he announced as the audience clapped again.

Morgan was jolted out his bored stupor. "What? Leader? Me?!"

He turned to the rest of his team and saw Aquaria sending him the death glare to kill all death glares.

Amid the last round of cheers, Ozpin glanced at Morgan one last time. "It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year." he said.

* * *

AN: Interesting indeed! This was a fun one, if long, to write and I want to know what you thought of it! I can't wait to write Donna's ire at being led by a Faunus. The interactions between her and Morgan will be… explosive to say the least.

Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter Four: Questions and a Fight **_

Morgan POV

The newly formed team was walking down the hallways of Beacon, following their guide of Goodwitch, with whom Morgan had a pretty big bone to pick. He was still pissed that she had given him wrong info. He was also acutely aware that Aquaria was glaring a hole into his backside but that was unimportant at the moment.

"Hey, Goodwitch. I got a question for ya." he said bluntly.

He heard his three teammates gasp in shock as Goodwitch stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned around with the mother of all scowls gracing her sharp facial features. "Mister Rubrum, while you are at this academy, you _will_ address a professor as 'Professor', 'sir' or 'ma'am'. Do I make myself clear, Mister Rubrum?"

Morgan grinned. "Crystal. _Sir_."

The silence was so complete that a pin could be heard dropping a half mile away. Goodwitch looked just about ready to have an aneurysm out of shock alone. Morgan found all of this highly amusing.

"Mister Rubrum… what did you call me?" the older Huntress asked quietly, a deadly steely edge to her voice that Morgan did _not_ find threatening. At all.

"I called you 'sir'. You just said to address a professor as 'professor', 'sir' or 'ma'am' but you didn't make clear _witch_ one you preferred. So I picked one at random. Did I pick the wrong one?" he asked with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

The teacher's left eyebrow twitched as she slowly inhaled and then slowly exhaled. "Did you… just make a witch pun?" she asked finally.

"Yep."

"I can give you mountains of homework and detentions."

"I know you can. Your point?"

Goodwitch sighed heavily. "What's your question, Mister Rubrum?" she asked, seemingly defeated. However, Morgan fully expected to have at least five detentions before the day was up because he figured Goodwitch would do a thing like that.

Morgan's grin dropped off his face and was replaced by a scowl that could make a Sea Feilong retreat into its watery den in fear. "You said Blanc was well known. You lied to me. Why? The news anchors yesterday didn't know much about her and I can't find a gods-damn thing online about her. Who is she and why did you lie to me?" he demanded.

Goodwitch kept glancing back at the other three members of his team nervously. "Mister Rubrum, I cannot discuss this with your team in the vicinity. You aren't even supposed to know who she is. I just told you that because I didn't think you'd actually check up on it!"

Morgan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Well, obviously I did. And now I want answers. So, who is she?" he demanded.

Goodwitch glanced around the hallway, apparently checking for eavesdroppers. "Like I said, I cannot discuss this here. If you want answers, come by my office after classes tomorrow and I will answer what I can. Alright?" she proposed.

Morgan growled softly as he considered it. "Fine. But you'd better tell me _everything_. And I _do_ mean everything." he demanded.

"As I said, I'll tell you everything I can. Now, this is your new dorm. I'd suggest you settle in and get some rest. Classes _do_ start tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp, after all." she said, seemingly glad to get rid of Morgan and the other three and walked off.

Morgan snorted at her retreating frame. "She'd better tell me everything…" he said to himself. "Well, guys, this is it, I guess. Our new dorm." he said while turning back toward his team, only to find them staring at him like he was crazy. "What?"

Robin was visibly confused while Ehre and Aquaria shared a look. "Morgan… what was that all about?" his partner asked.

He sighed and ruffled his hair. "When I stopped Blanc the other day, I ran into her sister. I could tell she was strong. I want to find her and fight her. To test myself and see how I stack up against her. But I can't find anything on the Blanc I _caught_, let alone her sister. Goodwitch gave me false information regarding how well known she was and I don't like being misled."

Aquaria raises an eyebrow. "Why is this so important to you? Why do you want to find her so much? These Blanc sisters _are_ criminals, after all. They are most definitely thieves, the Dust robbery proves that. But there's also a chance they could be murders, terrorists or any number of things. And you yourself just said that Chatte Blanc's sister was strong. Why would you risk your own life to find her?" she asked.

The Faunus teen rolled his eyes. "I've got that feelin' that gets your heart pumpin' and blood boilin' for a fight! And when I get that feelin', I can't just ignore it. Everything in my body is tellin' me to find her and fight her." he explained.

"Morgan… that kind of thinking will get you killed one day. These are criminals we're talking about. They won't have any compunctions about killing you if they get the chance. I don't think it's a good idea to chase her like this." Robin said.

Aquaria looked visibly pained as she opened her mouth to speak. "While it… pains me… to agree with Tori, she's right. It's a bad idea to chase down hardened criminals who've likely killed far more experienced Hunters than us."

Morgan shot her an annoyed glare, eyes momentarily shifting to scarlet. "Didn't you say all Faunus are criminals? How come you're trying to 'protect me'?"

Aquaria's nostrils flared as she stuck her nose in the air. "While I _do_ believe that, it's not as if I want them to die!" She turned back to Morgan with a nasty sneer. "After all, who'll do all the menial labor that we humans don't want to do?"

Morgan shot forward with a roar, grabbing Aquaria by the collar and pinning her to the wall. "Say something like that _one more time_ and I _swear_ I will rip your throat out with my bare fucking hands!" he snarled.

He felt someone put their hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Ehre. "Morgan, you really don't want to do that. Yes, Donna _is_ being an asshole right now, but her family is very wealthy and they have some of the best lawyers on Remnant who'll have you convicted in minutes, whether you do it or _not_. So maybe don't?"

Morgan turned his gaze back to Aquaria. Her face was filled with a smugness that just begged Morgan to attack her. He roared in her face before letting her go. "You're lucky you had your little beta pet to talk me down or you might not have been so lucky. Get in the fucking dorm. All three of you!" he yelled, reminding all four of them that he was, in fact, the leader of the team. Ehre practically dragged Aquaria into the room while Robin stayed out in the hall.

"Are you okay to sleep in the same room with her, Morgan?"

He lashed his tail. "Yeah. As long as she doesn't snore or talk or make any kind of noise. I might kill her otherwise." he growled. He stalked into the room. He stored his armor and weapons in one of the lockers to the left of the door. The living area was surprisingly spacious, if a little spartan. He turned to his right and walked through the sleeping area, where Aquaria and Ehre were getting ready for bed, into the bathroom and locked the door.

He stripped out of his jacket, shirt, pants and undergarments and stepped into the shower alcove. Strangely enough, there were only three shower heads while the dorms were built to house four. He let the water run over his tense muscles, relaxing them. Some of the water turned to steam as it impacted his body. He took several deep breaths in an effort to lower his body temperature. He came dangerously close to losing control. He couldn't let that happen again. Even if it was Aquaria.

He shut off the water and toweled himself dry. Once he'd pulled his underwear and shorts up, he walked back into the sleeping area. He put his clothes into the bedside cabinet next to the bed to the left of the window. Ehre had situated himself on the bed on the other side of the window and the girls had put their things on the other side of the room.

Aquaria looked impatient. "Finally! You were in there for over thirty minutes! Other people have to use the bathroom too!" she bitched.

He sent her a withering glare and managed to keep his eyes from turning red this time. "Aquaria, shut the fuck up. I just want to sleep without your constant yapping." he growled and climbed into the bed and drew the covers around himself and he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

*Several hours later*

Morgan jolted awake as he felt a large volume of water impact his head. "Argh, what the _fuck_?!" he yowled as he leapt out of his bed.

He saw Aquaria in a red plaid skirt, dark purple stockings and a dark purple jacket with a tan vest and white polo with a red ribbon tied at the collar standing next to his bed looking irritable. "Classes start in half an hour, Rubrum. You _might_ want to get ready. Your uniform is in the bathroom." she huffed before walking into the living area.

He heaved a deep sigh. "I'm gonna punch her in the face one of these days."

He heard a laugh beside him. "You really don't want to do that, you know. Army of lawyers and such." Ehre pointed out. He was wearing a black suit lined with gold with a blue vest and a white polo with a red tie.

Morgan grimaced. "_That's_ the uniform? Fuck." he griped as he walked into the bathroom to freshen up. Once he had done so, he got to work putting the suffocating monkey suit on. Try as he might, though, he could not get the tie tied correctly. "Stupid fucking necktrap." he growled. He had to abandon the attempt and just go to breakfast.

When he exited the bathroom, he was the only one in the dorm. It seemed that the others had already left. He grabbed the bag with his armor and weapons from the locker in the living area and made his way to the cafeteria.

It took him a while to navigate the hallways full of older students going to class and breakfast but he managed to spot his team at a table near the entrance. He saw Robin in the same getup that Aquaria was in.

He laughed derisively. "Jeez, these uniforms are fuckin' _awful_! Whoever designed these needs their eyes checked." he chuckled.

Robin laughed at the joke and Ehre just rolled his eyes and smiled. Aquaria, on the other hand, glared at him. "The uniforms are fine, Rubrum. And _why_ have you not tied your tie? You _do_ realize that we need to look presentable?" she chided.

His grin fell into a scowl and his eyes adopted an odd mix of gold and red. "For fuck's sake, Aquaria! First off, I don't know _how_ to tie a tie. I didn't realize I'd need that skill at a _monster-killing_ school. Second, I am presentable. Third, I swear if you do _not_ stop telling me what to do, I will _fucking_ hurt you." he growled, tail lashing.

Aquaria's glare deepened and Morgan tensed his muscles.

"Okay, that's enough of that. I'm just trying to eat my breakfast and you two are getting ready to duke it out. Can you guys save it until the class where we're _supposed_ to beat each other up?" Ehre interjected.

Morgan glared at Aquaria a few more moments before relaxing, his eyes slowly fading back to their normal gold. "You're right. I'd rather fight in a proper arena than a cafeteria. But Aquaria needs to stop trying to take my fucking job."

Robin glanced at him. "Morgan, what do you mean?" she asked.

He scoffed. "Oh, don't tell me you haven't seen it. The bossy attitude? Criticizing my every action this morning? She's trying to act as leader in my stead. It's really quite annoying. Yeah, I never actually wanted this role, but I'm going to perform it to the best of my ability but I can't do that if Aquaria keeps undermining me."

Aquaria rolled her eyes. "Maybe I would be more confident in your ability to lead this team if you had shown any ability to do so. But you've shown nothing that suggests that you can! And you haven't exactly impressed anyone this morning. Waking up late and not knowing how to properly wear your uniform? I don't think you have what it takes to be leader."

Morgan stared at her in confusion. "I haven't shown any ability to lead? Did you forget that it was _my_ plan that killed the Death Stalker while you were just firing at it blindly? Did you forget that you willingly followed my directions in that forest? And so what if I woke up a little late? I was recovering from a full powered blast of fucking _lightning_, fired by _you_ under _my _order! While I was taking charge, _you_ were running around like a headless chicken! Could _you_ have figured out a plan to kill that fucking scorpion before it killed us? Could you?! No! So how about you get off my ass and let me do my job?" he growled, his ears flattened against his skull and his tail lashing back and forth.

Aquaria and Morgan glared at one another until she finally backed down. "You should still tie that tie. It's not a good idea to walk into class without looking your best." she suggested.

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Can someone _help_ me tie it? Again, I never learned how."

Robin came around the table and set to work tying it for him. "I'll show you how to do it later when we have more time. How come you never learned, anyway? I'd assume that Signal has a uniform, right?" she asked.

Morgan shook his head. "Actually, no. We'd just wear our battle outfits. It's really only the major academies like Beacon or Haven that have uniforms like this. I thought you knew?"

"I'm only considered Mistralan because I was born in Anima. My village is actually a few miles south of the recognized border of the kingdom itself and is quite isolated. In total, I've only spent a couple weeks in the outside world, so I'm still learning a lot of things." Robin explained.

She finished tying Morgan's tie and went back to her breakfast. Morgan considered his eggs, sausages and ham. "I know how you're feelin'. When I first came to Vale, I had to navigate the city on my own. I was completely _alone_ in what felt like an alien world. Vale's completely different from Atlas." he said quietly.

Half of the table stared at Aquaria as she took a very loud spit take. "You're from _Atlas_?!" she exclaimed.

Morgan cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah? So? I switched my citizenship to Vale four years ago, though, so I don't consider myself Atlesian but I was born there. Why? Is my being born in Atlas going to cause an issue for you, Aquaria?" he asked, suspicious.

Aquaria shook her head. "No, no! I was just… surprised. You're nothing like the Atlesians I've met. You're far more chaotic and unpredictable." she explained.

Ehre chuckled. "Yeah, if you being from Atlas was an issue for her, she'd _hate_ me! I was born and raised in Atlas City."

The feline warrior chuckled. "Let me guess, most of the Atlesians you've met were stuffy, rich humans, going on and on about Atlas, how it's the 'best kingdom in the world' and 'Atlas makes the world better just by existing'."

Aquaria actually laughed at that. "Yes, actually! It got so boring! Like, we get it! Atlas is super rich. Get over yourselves!"

Ehre arched his eyebrows and pursed his lips in indignance. "To be fair, most Atlesians aren't like that. It's mainly the snobby, rich upper class with their heads up their own asses ruining the reputation of our great kingdom."

Aquaria smirked smugly. "Might I remind you, dear Lilo, that you are _part_ of that snobby, rich upper class? Surely, you didn't forget about that? A potential heir to a _very_ successful weapons company?"

Ehre's face turned rather red. "S-shut up! I'm not even very likely to inherit the company. I'd have to go through my _four_ older brothers!"

Morgan, Robin and Aquaria laughed at his indignance. "You know, Rubrum, you're not _completely_ terrible! You have a sense of humor, at least." Aquaria stated, still chuckling.

The Faunus teen stopped laughing at once. "What do you mean, 'not _completely_ terrible'?" he demanded, a steely edge to his voice that instantly set Ehre and Robin on edge. Aquaria seemed not to notice.

"Well, most Faunus are… how do I put this? Criminals? And you're always angry and you look ready to kill pretty much everything at a moment's notice, so I'd assumed that you were a part of that majority and- Do you have something to say, Lilo?!" she snapped.

Ehre had been making shushing motions since her first sentence. He facepalmed and pointed to Morgan, whose eyes were so bright a scarlet, they were practically glowing and he was shaking in pure fury. "You just have to make everything worse don't you, Aquaria? As I said the other day, not all Faunus are criminals. In fact, most of us are just trying to make our way through life, like most humans. But you just can't let go of your silly, misguided prejudice, can you? It's pathetic! You're a spoiled fucking brat who has never had to hear the word 'no'!" he snarled.

Aquaria bristled. "That's not even remotely true! My childhood wasn't exactly easy. My mother was extremely tough on me." she argued.

Morgan adopted a look of mock sympathy. "Aw, poor baby! Did Mommy take away your three thousand Lien a week allowance? Oh, it's just the end of the world! Well, not everyone is born with piles of money, set to inherit a successful company! Most of us have to _work_ and _earn_ what little we get! Like my parents! They were Dust miners for the SDC and they were damn good at what they did. The best in the town. But they were Faunus, so how did the _Schnees_ repay them?! By fucking them over, again and again! Docked pay, cut hours! In the end, they ended up dying in a cave-in that was probably caused by the humans! You humans like to say you're so much better than us Faunus because you're in power in the kingdoms. But you're _not_. You're just better at causing pain and strife in the world." he ranted, steam now rising from his hair and hands, ears flattened against his skull, tail lashing and tears streaming down his face.

The five-minute warning bell rang and Morgan turned on his heel and left the cafeteria, food still uneaten.

* * *

Donna POV

She couldn't believe it. Was that how all Faunus felt? Why did she hate Faunus anyway? Apart from the White Fang, they hadn't done anything to her. She didn't know what to believe anymore. Meeting Rubrum had caused her to rethink everything. And she could hate him for _that_ reason. He had confused her, made her second guess herself and that was something that Donna Aquaria never did. As her mother told her, "To doubt yourself is to fail."

"Donna." an angry voice sounded behind her. She turned around, only to be met by the fist of Tori impacting her face. Donna cried out in surprise and fell backwards onto the floor.

"You are such a bitch! Can you not think of how your words affect someone else?! Do you have any idea how much pain Morgan had to go through to mention his parents like that?! You and people like you are the reason why Morgan is so guarded, so angry all the time! News flash! If you hurt someone enough times, they're going to lash out a lot! I don't care if you hate the Faunus in private. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it isn't my place to change your mind. But you really need to stop spewing such hateful and toxic words! You are actively _ruining_ the team dynamic and I won't stand for it! So you can either stop or I will go to Professor Ozpin and ask him to transfer you to another team!" Tori screamed before she, too, left.

By now, a large crowd had gathered to watch the altercation and had started whispering amongst itself. Lilo helped Donna to her feet and led her out of the cafeteria. She was much too dazed to move on her own. She was dimly aware of Lilo urging her on to classes but she didn't remember much of them.

She knew they had opening lectures from Professor Peach, who taught Plant Science, Professor Greene, who taught Stealth and Security, Professor Mulberry, who taught Weapon Crafting and Upkeep and Doctor Oobleck, who taught history. Their second to last class, Grimm Studies taught by Professor Port, she remembered though.

She and Lilo were sitting together near the door. Rubrum and Tori were on the other side of the room. Donna stared blankly at her notebook, not even paying attention to Port's lecture, something about some random Ursa he had managed to kill and supposedly stuff, which was completely ridiculous. Everyone knew Grimm disintegrated when they died.

The next thing Donna knew, Port had slapped his hands onto her notebook. "Ahh! What was that for?!" she demanded.

Professor Port appeared to be a man in early old age. He wore a double-breasted burgundy suit with gold piping and buttons. His pants were tucked into olive boots, similar in appearance and construction to cavalry boots. He had gray hair and a gray mustache and appeared to be slightly overweight.

Port chuckled. "Because you weren't paying attention, of course. If you don't listen to my lecture, how will you learn to combat the vile and villainous creatures of Grimm?" he asked.

Donna rolled her eyes. "This so-called 'class' is moronic. How would you even mount an Ursa's head on your wall unless it was fake? Grimm disintegrate when they die, old man! I don't need this stupid class. I can kill Grimm just fine on my own." she stated.

The aging warrior cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Would you like to test that theory, young lady? I have a Boarbatusk in a cage for just this kind of occasion."

Donna and Port stared at each other for a few moments before Donna cracked a big, scheming kind of grin. "Let me just change into my armor and I'll take you right up on that offer, Professor." she chuckled.

*A few minutes later*

Donna swaggered back into the classroom, clad in her set of golden armor fit for a queen. Or a goddess. Donna chuckled darkly to herself. She was going to show everyone why everyone at Sanctum Academy called her The Lightning Goddess!

She grinned widely. "Alright, Professor, open the cage."

Port was standing by a cage covered in chains with his hand on a lever to open the door of said cage. He pulled it and said, "Good luck, Miss Aquaria!"

The pig like Grimm rolled out of the cage and tried to bowl Donna over but she was too quick for it. She dashed forward and slashed at the Boarbatusk with her trident but the prongs caught its heavily armored back and thus did little damage. She went in for another slash but the monster batted her weapon out of her hands with its tusks and bit her right forearm, scratching the metal. She punched it in the face with her other arm and it let go.

She backflipped away to where her trident fell to pick it up but before she could do so, the Boarbatusk slammed into her side and sent her flying into a desk, which she hit back first. She got up to her hands and knees and clutched her left shoulder, which was unprotected by armor and had gotten scratched up by the splintered wood.

She couldn't believe it! She had been injured by something as weak as a Boarbatusk! She dimly heard Rubrum chuckle. "Really? She's gettin' her ass kicked by a fuckin' _Boarbatusk_? How pathetic! I thought she was strong! But I guess she's just a weakling after all." he jeered.

Electricity played on her body as she played Rubrum's words in her head over and over again. _Ass kicked… Boarbatusk… Pathetic… weakling… _Now, Donna was just getting _pissed_. No one called her pathetic or weak. Ever.

She heard the Boarbatusk make a sound like a screeching tire as it revved up for another attack. More and more electricity played on her body as she slowly staggered to her feet. She turned her eye toward the pig monster.

It blazed forward, its tusks leaving actual marks on the classroom floor as it rolled toward her. However, Donna stopped it in its tracks by grabbing its tusks. "You have proven to be a thorn in my side. Prepare. To. _Die_!" she screamed as she went into Wrath Mode in an electrical burst of energy, her hair breaking out of its braid as it stood completely on end, her hair and eyes also adopted a brighter shade of blue and her eyes gained gold flecks.

She broke the beast's tusks clean off and kicked it in the face, sending it flying onto its back. Donna walked toward the Grimm and stabbed it in the chest with its own tusks. The beast disintegrated as she turned around and deactivated Wrath Mode. She glared directly into Rubrum's eyes, dark blue into bright gold, and silently dared him to say another word.

* * *

Lilo POV

Lilo couldn't believe it. Donna and Morgan were glaring at each other so hard that he half expected Morgan to fight her in his uniform. But, thankfully, Port interrupted the mood, completely oblivious.

"Congratulations, Miss Aquaria! You have the makings of a fine Huntress indeed! I bet you getting tossed around like that was just for show!" he praised.

Of course, Donna being Donna, she drank it all up. "I honestly thought it _would_ make for a dramatic show! Though, getting slammed into that desk did hurt more than I thought it would, hehe!" she said.

The young duelist narrowed his eyes. What was she playing at? That was genuine anger in her voice when she screamed like that, Lilo knew her too well to be fooled like that. Clearly, she was trying to make herself look good, she was always trying to do that. But why was she doing it _this_ time? To make Morgan look bad? Possibility but the Faunus teen wouldn't care about a ruined reputation. Lilo didn't know but he didn't like the way Donna was acting. She was planning something.

"Isn't she on the same team as the tiger guy?" a female voice sounded to his right. He turned to see a girl with long brown hair, wide brown eyes and a long pair of rabbit ears on top of her head. She was talking to another girl, likely on her team.

She had fair skin, short dark brown hair and her dark brown eyes were partially obscured by wire rimmed aviator sunglasses. She had wavy locks on one side of her face, dyed with a gradient that started as a dark brown and transitioned to caramel. She also wore a dark brown, almost black, beret on top of her hair.

"Yeah, she is. I wonder how they're gonna function. Half the team actively hates her. I really want to know what she said to him." she said.

Lilo narrowed his eyes again. Great. The other students were already trying to gossip about the team. Fantastic move, Donna. Fantastic move.

A few minutes later, Donna had changed back into her uniform and sat back down at her desk. "Donna, what the fuck is your deal?!" he hissed at the tanned heiress. Donna had always been the social butterfly and played the masses but this was ridiculous! Pretending like she planned all of that? Why? What was she _planning_?

Donna shushed him with a gesture, though. "Everything will make sense next class, I promise." she whispered, grinning darkly. She gestured at her hair, which was still free flowing after her electrified power up and Lilo began the familiar task of putting her hair back into its braided ponytail.

Lilo was rather annoyed. He had known Donna for fifteen years and still couldn't figure out what she could have been planning.

That annoyance aside, Lilo finished braiding his partner's hair and the pair listened to the rest of Port's lecture which was just as ludicrous as the first bit. The bell rang, signifying the end of the class. All of the first years made their way to the sparring arena, which was really very large. It seemed that Professor Goodwitch taught this one.

"Before we continue, I would suggest that all of you change into your combat gear, as we will be heading straight into practice matches after my brief explanation of the class." she informed. She led them into the locker area, which was oddly not gender separated.

After Lilo and the rest of the students quickly changed, Goodwitch began her lecture. It was mainly on her expectations for the year, obligatory rules, rocket propelled lockers, etc, etc. As they moved into the classroom proper, Lilo marveled at the size of the arena itself. He guessed it could support at least four on four matches. He couldn't help but notice the dark looks that Donna and Morgan were sending each other.

He moved away from Donna and went to sit by Robin, who also separated herself from her partner. "So, why are _you_ sitting away from your partner?" he asked. She glared at him. "Why do you care? You're probably just like that bitch. Only caring about yourself, your reputation and your _money_. You rich heir types are all the same."

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Wrong. I'm not at all like her. I'm not even set to inherit my family's company. I'm the youngest of five boys. And I did say Donna was abrasive, did I not? The Aquaria family's stance on Faunus disgusts me as much as it does you. But I can't do anything about it. And I care too much about Donna to just leave her in the dust. We've been through too much. Anyway, you still haven't answered my question."

Robin sighed. "He said he wanted some time alone. Said he didn't want to talk right now. I don't blame him." she said glancing at said leader, who was sitting with his arms crossed with a deep scowl on his face.

"The one on one sparring matches will now commence. I need to see where you're at, after all." Professor Goodwitch announced, jolting Lilo and Robin out of the moment. "Who wants to go first?"

* * *

Morgan POV

The matches weren't anything special by Morgan's standards. There were a few good moves and tricks here and there, like Robin using some rock to trip up Daichi, but apart from that it just faded into white noise for him.

"Alright, we only have one more matchup for today and it seems to be… Mister Rubrum and Miss Aquaria. Would you both come down to the arena?" Goodwitch stated.

Morgan started. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen her fight. He bared his teeth in a feral grin. A chance to show that entitled bitch why you didn't piss Morgan off. Why his classmates at Signal called him the Fiery Titan.

Before he made his way down into the arena, he drew his sword and left his shield in his seat. This was gonna be a serious fight, after all. He couldn't afford the dead weight. He felt that familiar rush of excitement and exhilaration that comes before a fight but also a deep rage in his chest. He knew who he was fighting.

He glanced at Aquaria. She had an expression that mirrored what he was feeling. Electricity played on her hands and hair and her eyes were already a lighter blue. Morgan narrowed his eyes as they turned scarlet.

They both stalked into the arena, Morgan crouching a bit and tensing to pounce and Aquaria stood even taller, trident already drawn.

Morgan felt the heat around his hands and hair but squashed it down. He could not afford to lose control. The power boost wasn't worth it. He settled into a battle stance as Aquaria settled into hers, already circling each other.

The air was tense as they stalked each other, waiting- no, begging- for Goodwitch to give the start signal. Goodwitch, seemingly oblivious to the tension, started up her spiel. "As you two are aware, this match will end when either one of your Aura levels dips to the red zone. I expect you to keep this a clean match. Begin." she stated.

Morgan pushed off the ground with blazing speed and flew at Aquaria with a primal roar, deep and rumbling. He aimed a slash at her, which she caught with her own weapon. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed again and again, Morgan being slightly stronger but Aquaria being slightly faster.

He couldn't find any holes in her technique, no gaps in her defenses. Her movements expertly flowed into one another, her sequences clearly honed over years and years of training. But even so, Morgan's sheer might and ferocity allowed him to break even.

She caught one of his attacks in the prongs of her weapon and wrenched it away from him. He backflipped away, dodging her repeated attacks. "Oh, what's the matter little kitty?! Can't deal without your _weapon_?!" she screamed, laughing maniacally.

That's when Morgan realized it. She had been trying to make him lose it since last night! Make him look like what she thought him to be: just a mindless animal. _Clever bitch, Aquaria. But I'm not playing into your games_. he thought. He _had_ to maintain control. He leapt over her attacks and snatched up his sword.

Aquaria rushed him and he switched his weapon into its underutilized shotgun mode and blasted her full on in the chest, knocking her across the arena onto her back. He switched it back and smirked. "What's the matter, Aquaria? Didn't see that comin'?" he quipped.

The tanned heiress staggered to her feet and picked up her weapon. She glared at him with a murderous glare. Her already lighter eyes gained those odd gold flecks and her hair broke free of its braid and stood on end, lightning playing up and down her body.

Morgan felt her Aura spike considerably and instantly felt the atmosphere of the fight change. He narrowed his eyes and got ready for her attack, again squashing down the heat around his hands and hair.

She blazed forward so fast Morgan couldn't react and whacked him across the face with the blunt end of her weapon. She kept bashing his chest and sides with the trident over and over and over again, little more than a blur as she jumped and flipped around him. He managed to switch his sword back into shotgun mode but she batted it out of his hands and out of the ring, rendering it useless. He'd have to ring himself out to get it. Fuck.

He fired a small blast of flame into her chest to momentarily daze her so he could get some damn breathing room. He backflipped away and started unbuckling his armor from his torso, arms and shoulders.

Aquaria cackled when she noticed. "Really? Do you _want_ to lose?" she demanded.

Scarlet eyes met blue and gold. "No. It's not for my protection. It's just dead weight." he said as he settled back into his battle stance.

She chuckled as she twirled her trident. "Whatever. Your funeral." she said as she rushed him. Without all the deadweight, he managed to block a fair chunk of her attacks but she was still too fast and she was still landing the majority of them. She hit him over and over again and he could tell even without looking at his Scroll that his Aura was going down quick.

The heat rose up again, tempting him to lose all sense of control and reason but he squashed it down again. He managed to bring his hand up to blast her in the face with a quick stream of fire, knocking her out of her attack sequence, making her drop her trident and giving him some breathing room.

He stumbled as he backed away from her. They were already evenly matched before but this new power up really gave her a definite edge against him. Again his instincts begged him to take over but he refused to cave.

Aquaria, however, had recovered. "You… you filthy _Faunus_!" she shrieked as she blasted him with lightning. He collapsed with a cry of pain. "You actually thought that would do anything?! Well, it only served to _piss me off_!" she continued as she kept blasting him with electrified plasma. She hadn't even bothered to pick up her weapon. She just kept blasting him over and over while screaming insults that he couldn't hear.

In between one of her attacks, Morgan heard Goodwitch call out. "Miss Aquaria, that's enough! His Aura is in the red. This fight's over."

That woke him up. "NO!" he roared, getting everyone's attention. He staggered to his feet, slowly but surely. "I… am not… done yet. This fight ain't over till I say it is." he growled.

Goodwitch hesitated. "Are… are you sure? Your Aura is dangerously low!" she warned, a little bit of concern showing on her face.

The feline Huntsman chuckled. "That a touch of concern, Professor? I'm fine to keep fighting. I ain't goin' down that easy." he stated, settling into a battle stance and discretely used some of the energy he'd absorbed to reenergize him and giving him a not so little power boost.

Goodwitch looked from Morgan to Aquaria. "Miss Aquaria, are you okay with this?"

More lightning pulsed over Aquaria's body. "If he wants to keep throwing himself at me, that's his business. His funeral." she said, a dark grin on her face.

The professor sighed. "Fine. Begin!" she said again.

Aquaria immediately sent out another blast of lightning. But this time, however, Morgan met it with his own blast of flame. The heiress widened her eyes then twisted her face into an enraged grimace, putting even more power behind her attack.

Morgan was running out of Aura. He needed to close the distance somehow. He cut power to his flames and rolled to his right. He blazed toward Aquaria, sidestepping to the left or right to dodge her incoming attacks. He entered hand to hand range and immediately threw a right hook toward her jaw, which she promptly dodged.

They each launched flurries of punches and kicks that were either blocked or dodged by the other. Again, they proved to be evenly matched, with Morgan having a slight edge on power while Aquaria had a slight edge on speed.

Morgan poured almost everything he had left into this engagement, even using his tail to block attacks and to attack with it while keeping his ears flattened close to his skull. Even with all his effort, however, he was slowing. A missed punch here. A mistimed block there. All culminating in Aquaria landing a right hook square in the jaw, sending him flying onto his back.

He landed hard, knocking the wind out of him. He tried to get up but Aquaria planted a sandled foot on his chest to pin him down. He struggled even still but she just pressed her foot down harder. "Give up Faunus. You're done! You. Have. _Lost_."

Morgan snarled and tried to fling a fireball in her face. It missed but it still served to piss her off further. "Is it your life's mission to _piss me off_?! Because it certainly seems so! Well, I'm going to show you and everyone else _why_ I'm better than you, _why_ you'll never win!" she stated, cackling crazily. It seems she had finally reached the end of her patience and just lost herself. She lifted her foot off of him and reached her hand out to him and made a crushing gesture.

Morgan felt an unbearable, agonizing cold sensation and cried out in pain. She lifted her arm and, by extension, lifted him into the air. "You feel that, Faunus? That's the feeling of every single cell in your body _freezing_! I can stop this if you only surrender." she offered.

Morgan could barely breathe. He only just managed to choke out, "N-never!"

Aquaria widened her eyes. "W-what? Why?! I'm offering you a way out and you're refusing? Why aren't you surrendering?!" she demanded, still tightening her hand, making it even colder.

"I… don't… give in… to bullies!" Morgan choked out. It now felt so cold that he started blacking out. Before he lost consciousness, a face flashed across his vision. His mother's face. He also remembered her dying words. "Be strong, embers. Be strong and live for me."

He felt the heat rise up again and he finally relented. He let loose a primal roar as his hands and hair burst into yellow flames, entering Berserker Mode and breaking free of Aquaria's grip. He slowly looked up at her, his tears evaporating off his face.

Aquaria looked scared for a moment before shaking it off and rushing Morgan, aiming a punch. He deftly dodged it and threw a right hook towards her jaw that sent her flying. He slowly walked toward her, every step cracking the floor of the ring. The heiress staggered to her feet and attempted to punch him in the chest, which he blocked easily and threw another punch in her face. He grabbed her throat and slammed her into the ground. He knelt down to keep choking her, silent tears streaming down his face as he punched her in the face over and over, feeling her Aura shatter.

He was about to throw another when he felt an iron grip on his arm. He looked to his right and it was Robin, looking worried. All of a sudden, he just felt tired as his flames went out and Robin pulled him into a hug. "It's okay. You're okay." she whispered into his ears.

He was dimly aware of Ehre making sure Aquaria was okay. Robin helped him up and led him into the changing area. Once there, she helped clean him up and made sure he was stable, in more ways than one. "Are… you okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "I am now. Thanks. For stopping me." he said.

Robin was about to reply when the bell rang, signifying the end of class. Morgan's ears perked up. "Damn, how long were we fighting?"

Robin chuckled. "It was a good twenty minutes! You were both _incredible_! I've only seen one other person have that kind of strength and speed!" she exclaimed.

Morgan chuckled weakly. "Nice."

And then Goodwitch burst into the changing area, promptly ruining the fucking moment like the uptight bitch that she was! "I cannot _believe_ you! Do you realize the damage you could have done to Miss Aquaria had Miss Tori not stopped you?! She's just dazed, thankfully, but it could have been a lot worse! Were you _trying_ to have a repeat of what happened with… What happened three days ago." she halted once she remembered Robin was there.

Morgan rolled his eyes. "You mean, what happened with Blanc? No, actually. I _was_ trying to maintain control but it ain't exactly easy when someone is _literally freezing you_! Speaking of Blanc, it's after classes, so spill. Now." he demanded.

Goodwitch had a very pained expression. "Not with Miss Tori in the room. She will have to leave." she said.

Robin got up to leave. "Okay. See you, Morgan."

He shook his head. "No. Fuck that. She stays. Or I go directly to Blanc and get my fucking answers that way." he threatened.

Goodwitch furiously shook her head. "No, no! Absolutely not! Alright, fine! Miss Tori, you can stay. But you must promise to not breathe a word of this to anyone else. Especially Professor Ozpin. I don't even _know_ how he'd react if he found out you knew." she said.

Robin nodded. "Okay. I promise." she said, sitting down next to Morgan.

Goodwitch sighed. "Okay. I can't give you the whole story, partly because I don't know myself. But, as I told you before, Chatte Blanc is the second in command of Le Syndicat Blanc, a mafia of sorts dealing in Dust and advanced technology. We've been trying to stop them for years but we've had no luck. They raid Dust shops and shipments as well as tech labs for anything useful. And… there have been some unsolved murders that we're pretty sure Blanc was involved in. We don't know why they need the Dust or the tech but that is neither here nor there." she explained.

"What about her sister? What's her part in all this?" Morgan asked.

Goodwitch did a double take. "How… how do you know about Blanc's sister?" she asked incredulously.

Morgan shrugged. "She was watching the robbery. She talked to me after I left for the Mistral place. I could tell she was really strong and I'm itchin' to see just _how_ strong she is." he explained. Goodwitch and Robin were staring at him with a fair amount of concern. "What?"

Goodwitch hesitated. "Mister Rubrum… Chatte Blanc is almost certainly a murderer and now you want to go after her older sister? We don't know anything about her, not even her name! The only thing we know is that she's the head of the Syndicat! She is _dangerous_ and you need to dispel the notion of going after her, let alone fighting her. She will have no compunctions killing you and I am _not_ having your blood on my hands. This is the last I want to hear of this. This conversation is now over. You have the rest of the day to yourselves. Go to your dorm and _rest_. Mister Ehre and Miss Aquaria are there. Goodday." she said, turning on her heel and leaving the room.

Morgan sighed. "Damn… Whatever. Let's go, Robin. Let's go deal with the aftermath."

* * *

AN: That took so goddamn long to write! I'm so sorry for it taking nearly a year to update but a combination of computer issues, personal issues and more computer issues, I haven't had a lot of time recently. I hope all of you are staying healthy and alive in these plaguey times and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I really hope the fight turned out well.

Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five: The Aftermath, a Mistake and a Decision **_

Morgan POV

The pair walked in silence to the dorm, Robin almost supporting Morgan. That fight took a lot out of him, he was exhausted. He hadn't been this tired after a fight in years. As they walked back to the dorm, Morgan noticed that some of the other students were staring at him. He knew they were the other first years who saw the fight and he knew why they were staring at him this time. "Robin, let's speed this up. I don't like how they're starin' at me." he whispered.

Robin nodded and they picked up the pace. However, a certain bug winged nuisance intercepted them. "H-hey, Morgan! I saw your fight… You were amazing!" Yellowjacket simpered. She was back in her battle outfit, a very short yellow and black open backed crop top, an equally short yellow miniskirt and black fishnet stockings. She had wavy, shoulder length blond hair and coal black eyes that had an unnerving glint to them. Her wings were buzzing excitedly.

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Look, Yellowjacket, that fight tired me out. I just want to go back to my dorm and rest. I don't have the energy to deal with people right now." he said.

Her wings stopped buzzing and drooped. "Oh… okay. M-maybe later?" she asked, a bit dejected. Morgan couldn't figure her out at all.

"…Sure. Why not? It could be _inter-team bonding_, all eight of us." he deadpanned, pouring every bit of sarcasm he could into his words. He should have just said no! Because Yellowjacket immediately perked up, very, _very_ excited.

"Really?! How about Saturday?! Oh, I have to go tell my team!" she buzzed, flying off and not even letting him fucking respond!

Morgan couldn't believe it. "Does… does she not know what _sarcasm_ means?! Whatever. We're not fuckin' goin'." he griped.

"Nope. We're going. I will make you." Robin said, a playful smirk on her face.

The feline teen groaned. "Why?! I don't want to go! It's her fault she doesn't understand sarcasm! I mean, seriously!" he growled, ears flattened against his skull and tail lashing.

Robin laughed. "Because you need to interact with other people more. Even the ones you don't like. Besides, after the team meet-up, we could head out to Vale, just me and you. Do whatever you want. That sound like a good tradeoff?" she proposed.

Morgan narrowed his eyes but considered it. On one hand, he'd have to deal with Yellowjacket, who likely just wanted to use him to sate her own desires. But on the other, spending a quiet afternoon in Vale with a friend sounded nice. He groaned. "Ugh, _fine_. It had better be worth it, Robin." he said playfully.

She laughed. "Whatever. Let's just get back to the dorm." They continued down the hallway with Morgan nearly having to lean on Robin for support, which was rather difficult for Robin, as she was a full foot shorter than him. But they made it somehow.

Robin opened the door and they walked in. Morgan immediately made eye contact with Aquaria. "Hey." he deadpanned.

"Hey." she replied. She was in a nightgown under a blanket on the couch next to the window sipping from a mug, probably tea as her voice sounded a bit hoarse. Probably from the choking. This was gonna get interesting.

Aquaria hesitated before speaking. "Rubrum, I- no. _Morgan_. I'm sorry. For everything I said and did to you. It was wrong and I realize that."

Morgan cocked an eyebrow. "I'm surprised. Wasn't expecting you to apologize. Accepted, by the way, just unexpected." he stated. He sighed. "I'm sorry, too. I lost control of my Semblance and nearly killed you."

She nodded. Then she laughed a bit. "You did say you were going to punch me in the face one of these days."

Morgan was confused. "What?"

"Lilo told me you said that this morning." she half croaked. She shook her head and had a genuine look of regret on her face. "Morgan, I… Growing up wasn't all fun and games for me. My mother was… harsh. Even at the best of times. I had to do everything a certain way, walk a certain way, talk a certain way, _fight_ a certain way. If I didn't do what she said, when she said it and how she said it, she… punished me. Sometimes physically. I wish it was only physical. I can handle that." She paused, tears starting to wet her face and looked down at her mug.

"She would say I was worthless, pathetic, unworthy to inherit my family's name. To be told by your own mother that you were less than human if you didn't act a certain way… I'm not justifying what I said or did. It was terrible and I need to atone. I was merely shaped by my circumstances. I think, deep down, I didn't believe all that stuff. But I've been spewing it for so long that I don't even know anymore. I just want to apologize and ask for the possibility of forgiveness. I know I probably don't deserve it but I want so desperately to atone for all the horrible things I said." she finished, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Morgan shrugged. "Okay." he said simply.

She looked up, confused. "Really? Just like that? Not… that I am complaining, Robin!" she added quickly at the other girl's glare. "I'm just confused. I was a colossal bitch to you, insulted you and your entire species!"

"Donna, I got my catharsis when I kicked your ass. Am I still pissed that you said that? You bet your fuckin' ass, I am! But you didn't threaten anyone I care about, you didn't hurt anyone I care about and I _won_. That's all I care about right now in regard to that. I'm willing to let it go if you are because I want to have fun fighting you again. You're strong and you nearly beat me a couple times! If we let this go, the constant bickering goes away and we both get a good sparring partner! It's a win-win for all involved, really." he said.

Donna had an incredulous expression. "W-what? I nearly _froze you to death_ and you're just letting it go? Because you somehow had fun fighting me? I almost killed you!"

"But you didn't. Our issues are over as far as I'm concerned. So, friends?" he smirked.

Robin looked like she couldn't believe her ears. "Isn't 'friends' a little quick? Especially after what you've told me and what she's done? You're not even holding a _little_ bit of a grudge? Not that I _want_ the previous dynamic, far from it. I'm just a little confused."

Morgan rolled his eyes. "I got my catharsis. In my eyes, we're even for the shit she's said. The slate's wiped clean. As long as she doesn't do it again, I don't care. Besides, she apologized and actively regrets what she said. I can smell it. You can't fool _my_ nose." he said, tapping it with a finger. "Plus, I can hear your heartbeats. If you're lying, I'll know about it. Good thing you're not, though." he continued, swiveling his ears.

He yawned, maw wide open in a silent roar. "Man, I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap." he stated, walking into the bed area and went to sleep in his jacket and pants.

* * *

Donna POV

Donna couldn't believe it. He just forgave her? Just like that? She made a note to herself to try extra hard to do right by him. She took another sip of her tea, the honey Lilo added soothing her throat. "That guy is so confusing." she said to herself.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Robin laughed. "Damn, I forgot you were in here!" she exclaimed.

The other girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever. But you're right. Morgan does things that make no sense to anybody but him." she chuckled. Her expression darkened and Donna braced herself. "Morgan may have forgiven you but I haven't. I'll play nice because I don't want to deal with the drama. But if you slip up and say anything like that again, I will personally suffocate you inside a fifty ton boulder. Understand?"

Donna nodded, suddenly afraid of the tiny ninja girl. Robin's expression instantly lightened. "Good! I just wanted you to be aware." she said.

The tanned heiress stared at the pale Mistralan like she was crazy. Which, in all fairness, she probably was. "So, uh… How _is_ southern Anima? I've only ever been in the north. The artsy stuff is nice and all but variation is good too, I guess."

The other girl chuckled. "It's okay, I guess. It's mostly just forest. Until about a month ago, I'd never been outside my village and the surrounding forest, so I'm still getting used to everything. Oh, man, you should've seen my face when I found out what a _car_ was! I freaked out so damn _bad_!" she giggled, rather embarrassed.

Donna cocked an eyebrow. "How come your village is so isolated?" she asked.

Robin shrugged. "Papa said our ancestors got tired of the Kingdoms and went to make their own settlement, away from the rest of the world. They figured that, if they separated themselves from the world's conflicts and isolated themselves, negative emotions wouldn't flare up as easily." she explained.

Donna nodded in understanding. "So the _Grimm_ wouldn't be as big of a problem. That makes sense to me. I'm assuming it's worked so far?"

The young ninja shrugged. "It has for the past four hundred years. Of course, the Grimm are still an issue, they always will be. But the founders of Shinobi made sure that there would always be a protector of the village. The current chief and their family were to be Huntsmen and Huntresses, training to defend and protect their home and people." she explained.

"Are you… the current chief's daughter?" Donna asked.

Robin nodded. "One of 'em, yeah. I have an older sister, Haiiro, and a younger sister, Aka. Haiiro is set up to be the next chief, inheriting the title from our father. I wish I could be like her. I really do." she said, suddenly very sad.

Donna hesitated. "Are… you okay?"

The other girl nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that Haiiro is so fast and strong! She's amazing! Sometimes it seems like nothing can beat her. Not only that, she always seems to know what to do, what to say. She's smart, she's pretty and quick witted. Everything I'm not."

Donna rolled her eyes. "But you are smart and quick witted. I saw you fight earlier. So what if you're not the strongest fighter? You can be strong in other ways! And being plain of face doesn't make you not pretty. A lot of guys _and_ girls find a person's brain and personality more attractive than looks. It's all a matter of finding the right person for you."

Robin shrugged. "I guess. Say, where's Lilo? I thought he'd be in here."

"He's scrubbing down our weapons and my armor in the bedroom. I said I'd do it later but he told me to just take a break." Donna said.

Robin hummed and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Donna finished her tea and Robin seemed to be meditating. She was saying something to herself in a language Donna wasn't familiar with. While she couldn't understand it, she knew it was a phrase being repeated over and over again. It sounded sort of like a mantra, which made sense.

Their thoughts were interrupted by Lilo coming into the living area with their weapons and her armor, scratches and dents repaired and all polished up. "Hey, guys. Morgan's taking a _cat_ nap in the bedroom, in case you didn't know." he said snickering quietly at his own joke. "Anyway, did you two make up yet? I heard you talking for a bit till he came in but couldn't make it out." he informed.

Donna nodded. "Yeah, everything's cool now. He said the slate's wiped clean and we're even. He even went so far as to offer to be friends. I was actually surprised that he'd offer something like that so soon. He doesn't seem the type."

Lilo hummed. "Maybe. Or maybe we're thinking about this all wrong. Robin told me in Professor Goodwitch's class today that she'd accidentally pissed him off the night before Initiation and apologized to him the next morning. And he accepted.

"Clearly, Morgan respects when someone admits they're wrong. I'm not even gonna ask if you apologized, Donna, I already know you did. 'Slate wiped clean,' he said. Hmm. I think that, in the fight, he worked out all his aggression against you, getting a sort of catharsis, figuratively 'wiping the slate clean.' I think there's also specific qualities about both of you that endears you to him. Robin is small, sincere and kind but also more than capable of standing up for herself. Donna is tall, sarcastic and aggressive, as well as incredibly powerful but can admit to her own mistakes (when forced).

"He seems to value and respect people who put him at ease, Robin, and people who can physically compete with him, Donna. Now, based off of what he said last night, he seems to find fighting fun and fights to have fun. He also appears to want to fight strong opponents to get a more 'fun' challenge. Taking that into account, you _clearly_ challenged him today and, were it not for the crap you said, he would've had an absolute blast fighting you, Donna.

"Now that I think about it, there could also be a physical component to it! A particular smell, sound, mannerism or way of movement. I-" he began but Donna cut him off.

"Alright, motormouth. The psychoanalysis was good enough. You are such a mega nerd, I swear!" she teased, giggling. She sighed. "I guess that makes sense, though. He has the simple instincts and psychology of a tiger and complex human level intelligence to supplement it. Everything about him, from his body to his mind, seems to be designed to fight." she mused.

She shook her head to clear it. "Whatever. Let's talk about something else, huh?"

Robin seemed to recall something. "Oh! Morgan accidentally agreed to a team meet up between MRLD and WASP on Saturday after Yellowjacket came up to us on our way back to the dorm and I'm making him go." she said, looking extremely pleased with herself.

Donna cocked her head to the side. "Yellowjacket? That wasp girl? Why'd she come up to you and Morgan?" she asked, rather confused. She didn't know that much about her but the way she buzzed her wings really creeped her out.

Robin just about burst into laughter. "Yeah! My guess is that she's been thirsting after him since we saw him shirtless the night before Initiation. I think she may be a _wee_ bit crazy!" she said, giggling.

Lilo shook his head. "I don't think anyone can blame her, though. He has the body of a literal _god_! Seeing him makes me wish I had, or _could have_ muscles like that." he griped, appearing… rather jealous!

Donna laughed. "Oh, Lilo, it doesn't matter if you stay the tiny twig you are now or somehow gain godlike abs, you are my partner and I lo- care for you no matter what." she said, catching herself almost immediately.

Lilo narrowed his eyes but didn't comment. Robin was about to but a light blue and gold glare with a bit of lightning across her hair quickly shut her up. "_Any_way, when you say 'making him go', you really mean you're making all of us go, right?" she asked.

Robin actually cackled. "Yep! Also, when I say that Morgan accidentally agreed to it, I really mean that he suggested it as a sarcastic joke but Yellowjacket apparently doesn't understand sarcasm so this is also a way of teaching him to be careful with his words!"

Lilo and Donna shared a look. "You… you are one diabolical ninja, you know that, Robin?" Lilo asked.

Said ninja nodded and giggled again. "I know!"

Donna shook her head to clear it. "Ookaay, moving on from _that_. Anyone want to just… watch dumb cartoons?"

* * *

Morgan POV

*A few days later*

The rest of the week had gone relatively smoothly, all things considered. Classes were going fine, everyone on Team MRLD was getting along and Morgan's fight with Donna seemed to fade into obscurity. The only thing that was bothering the feline Huntsman was Yellowjacket constantly coming up to them during meals to plan out their meetup and Robin not letting him explain what he had really meant.

So he was actually enjoying his afternoon walk around the schools grounds on Friday after his classes let out. The gardens and their pools, while no forest, was rather soothing to him when he needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the school.

He felt himself relax as he heard the fountains of the pools gurgle. Only to immediately tense up as he sensed someone behind him. He whipped around, lighting a fireball in his hand and getting ready to launch it at the other person.

"Hello, Mister Rubrum. You know, I don't believe it would be a good idea to use your Semblance on your Headmaster." Ozpin remarked, _smiling_! He walked past Morgan, not even really using his cane at all.

Morgan cut power to his attack. "I almost roast you and you make a joke about it? You humans are getting weirder everyday." he said as he turned the older man.

Ozpin smirked as he sat down on the bench across from the pool Morgan had been facing. "Mister Rubrum, are you suggesting that you could best me in a fight?"

Morgan cocked an eyebrow. "That depends on how strong you are. Care to test the theory? My sparring matches with Donna are fun and all but I could use another fight today." he said, cracking his knuckles and neck and smirking.

The professor merely chuckled. "No, that's quite alright, Mister Rubrum. I'd rather not humiliate you right now. I only wish to talk to you." he replied.

Morgan started. Then he growled. "Humiliate?! You'll find I'm tougher than _that_!"

Ozpin nodded. "I'm sure you are. But, again, I don't wish to fight right now, I only want to talk. Please, sit down. It's more comfortable than standing." he said, gesturing at the space of empty bench next to him.

Morgan considered it for a few moments before eventually sitting down. "Whatever. What do you want, anyway?" he grumbled.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Ozpin's smirk disappear. "I saw your fight with Miss Aquaria. It was… enlightening, I suppose."

Morgan's ears flattened against his skull. "Me and Donna have already made up, okay? She didn't kill me and I didn't kill her and we're getting along now! That's _it_, subject over!" he growled. Morgan thought that everyone had forgotten his lapse in control but apparently not!

But Ozpin shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant, Mister Rubrum. Yes, it is admirable, though. Your team dynamic had a serious imbalance but you managed to correct it without major issue. I'm talking about your power." he said.

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "What about my power?"

Ozpin glanced at him over his dark lensed glasses. "Your Aura is different to anything I've felt in a long time. You're far stronger, faster, tougher, more tenacious than you should be at your age. Your power rapidly rises and overflows and you can barely contain it. At present, I believe you may be a danger to yourself and everyone around you should your temper snap. I wish to avoid that outcome.

"Which is why I believe you should undergo remedial lessons with Professor Greene to attempt to rein in your anger." he explained.

Morgan rolled his eyes. "No offense, Professor, but I don't see how _Greene_ could help me control my temper. Ain't she just the stealth teacher?"

Ozpin narrowed his eyes. "_Professor_ Greene, Mister Rubrum. And no, she isn't _just_ the stealth instructor. She is a trusted ally and friend of mine. I believe she can help you control your temper and, by extension, your powers. A Huntsman's Aura and Semblance is tied to his emotions and yours run deeper than anyone I've ever met."

Morgan groaned. "Ugh, _fine_! What would these 'lessons' even entail, anyway?" he asked. He was actually getting curious.

"They would involve breathing exercises, scenarios designed to test your patience and attempting to draw out and refine that power you exhibited in your fight with Miss Aquaria." he explained.

The feline Huntsman did a double take. "What?! I don't think I heard you right. You want me to _try_ to activate Berserker Mode? You realize that that's a… _bad_ idea, right? Every time I've activated it before, I've either hurt or _killed_ something! That's the whole reason I've named it '_Berserker_' Mode! I can't use it unless I'm so angry, I want something hurt or dead."

Morgan couldn't believe his ears! If Robin hadn't stopped him a few days ago, Donna would've been a lot more than just dazed. If Goodwitch hadn't stopped him a week ago, Blanc would likely be dead. That Beowolf four years ago _did_ die, directly because of Morgan's actions while in Berserker Mode!

Ozpin sighed. "Yes, I am aware of how dangerous it can be. That is precisely _why_ I want you to try and control it. If you can control it, you can, a, use it at will, b, not completely lose all control and reason when you do. Does _that_ not sound like a good investment?"

Morgan sighed. "Yeah, I guess it does. I just don't want to lose control and hurt or kill the wrong person, someone who hasn't done anything to me."

Ozpin shook his head. "These lessons will help you prevent that, Mister Rubrum. Your powers are not done growing and evolving. This is just the first step."

Morgan contemplated what had happened over the past week. One thing still didn't make sense to him. "Why?" he asked.

The aging professor raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean, Mister Rubrum? 'Why', what? Please clarify."

"Why did you choose _me_ to be team leader? I'm the most volatile one on the team, the one most likely to get them into trouble! I'm far more likely to go off on my own and seek out stronger opponents to fight, all while leaving them in the dust! Lilo's the calmest and smartest. If anyone has the brains to lead, it's him. Robin's just as tenacious as me and far more level headed. And Donna has been training for a leadership position for years! All I have is my fighting experience. I don't know how to lead a team." he said. He couldn't understand why Ozpin would pick him over the other three, his earlier explanation to Donna aside. In his mind, his cons far outweighed the pros.

The headmaster chuckled lightly. "Mister Rubrum, I have made more mistakes than you could ever possibly imagine. But I don't believe that making you team leader is one of them. I made you the leader because, in the Emerald Forest, you saw a bad situation and you took charge. You issued commands and they were followed. Yes, you are volatile. Yes, you have a temper. But can you honestly say you could abandon your team to fight a strong opponent, just like that? Without any hesitation?"

Morgan found he had to actually think about the answer! And… he couldn't say that. Where just a week prior, he'd leave these people in his dust to fend for themselves, on that day, Morgan realized that he would stay and fight, not only with them but _for_ them. "No. I… can't." he said with no small amount of surprise.

The professor smiled. "Morgan, being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility. I advise you to think about how you will carry it out. I won't force you to participate in the lessons, but should you choose to, you need only stop by her office after classes Monday afternoon. She will provide you with the necessary information. I'll leave you to your walk now."

Ozpin stood up from the bench, turned to leave and walked away. Morgan considered what had been said. Was it even possible? Taming the raging fires of Berserker Mode? He wasn't sure but the least he could do was try again, he supposed. _I must be outta my fuckin' mind, tryin' a thing like this_! he thought. He laughed and stood up as well.

The feline Huntsman started to make his way back to the dorms. He had a long weekend ahead of him, after all, and he wanted to be well rested.

* * *

AN: A little bit of a shorter one but I like where this one ended. I really want to know if I handled the making up well, if it made sense in the context. _I_ think it does but I wrote the damn thing!

As per usual, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter Six: The Meetup and a Visit **_

Lilo POV

Lilo was not particularly happy on Saturday morning. Why was he not happy? He had been forced out of bed at an ungodly hour of four in the morning because Yellowjacket wanted to go into Vale super early to get into some improv drama studio.

So, there he was, eating breakfast with the rest of his exhausted team at half past seven in the morning listening to Yellowjacket buzz excitedly about how much fun they were going to have or whatever. Lilo wasn't the only one who was annoyed, though. Donna kept rolling her eyes at everything Yellowjacket said, Morgan was actively fuming and even Yellowjacket's own teammates were rolling their eyes.

Robin was the only one actually replying to anything Yellowjacket said. It seemed like they were actually getting along but Lilo could tell that Robin really couldn't stand the wasp Faunus. He couldn't blame her, really. Yellowjacket was completely infatuated with Morgan, it seemed. Sitting way too close to him, caressing his tail very weirdly at times. The only thing that was stopping the tiger Faunus from killing her was Robin on his other side with her hand on his shoulder. Lilo was actually concerned Morgan might just snap regardless.

Their torture finally ended when Yellowjacket's scroll went off. "Oh! We need to clean up and leave now if we want to make it on time." she said. She picked up both her plate and Morgan's and hovered off to the trash and recycling area.

Morgan glared at Yellowjacket's retreating form with bright scarlet eyes and Lilo could literally see the steam rising off of him. Lilo turned to one of Yellowjacket's teammates, a guy called Scorch Flame. "Can she not tell that Morgan actually hates her?"

Flame laughed. "You know, I don't think she can. Wasperia is kinda fuckin' crazy. We grew up together, you know. That was… an experience." he said. Flame was a little taller than Lilo, pale skinned, with orange hair and red eyes. Like everyone else there, he was in his casual/combat outfit, black combat boots, orange leather pants, an open red leather jacket over a pale orange undershirt.

Lilo rolled his eyes. "Well, if Yellowjacket isn't careful, Morgan's going to put her through a wall. She's way too clingy."

Another one of her teammates, a girl shorter than Robin named Priscilla Royal, scoffed and shook her head. "If you ask me, Wasperia and Rubrum are terrible for each other. I don't know why she's going for him."

Royal was a pale skinned girl with pink eyes, orchid colored hair, small pointed cat ears of the same color and wearing a strapless princess-y type dress with a knee length skirt, puffed sleeves, elbow length evening gloves and 3 inch heels.

Morgan's eyes immediately snapped to Royal. "So I'm not the only one thinking it?! I'm not going fucking crazy?!" he demanded, appearing both absolutely enraged and sleep deprived.

Royal flinched a bit, her ears flattened against her skull in apparent fear. "Um… no? You're not the only one?" she hesitated.

Robin put her hand on Morgan's shoulder to comfort him. "It's okay, Morgan. It's only for a couple hours, then we'll go out to Vale on our own. Nice and quiet, away from other people. Think you can hold on till then?"

The feline Huntsman begrudgingly nodded. "I guess. But I swear, if she tries to touch my ears and tail again, I might flip!" he growled.

As the rest of them got up to take their plates over to the trash area, the last of the wasp girl's teammates, Alex Ble, piped up. "Other than the whole personal space thing, why is that such an issue?" he asked.

Ble was wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans, black combat boots, an indigo leather chest plate, indigo leather shoulder pads and an indigo leather bracer on his right forearm. His armor was actually rather similar to Donna's but was more modern, as opposed to her more traditionally forged pieces.

Morgan rolled his eyes and didn't answer and Lilo took over. "Faunus traits, like ears or a tail, are often quite sensitive and, as such, painful if manhandled. Of course, this usually pertains to the soft and squishy mammalian traits from cats or dogs. Crocodile Faunus with tails, for example, usually have thick, armor-like scales covering them, so they're not as sensitive."

Donna snickered. "Nerd!" she teased.

Lilo snorted, indignant. "I am not a 'nerd'! I merely know a multitude of things from a multitude of subjects. I am _knowledgeable_, Donna, _knowledgeable_."

Morgan rolled his eyes. "So, in other words, a nerd."

Lilo narrowed his eyes at the tiger Faunus and sent a small blast of wind at him, which was immediately countered by a small spark of flame that actually stung quite a bit. "Ow! What the hell, Morgan!"

"Next time, don't fuck with the walking flamethrower." he deadpanned.

Donna chuckled and shook her head.

Lilo rolled his eyes. The group reached the trash area and threw away what remained of their food. Yellowjacket was hovering an inch off the ground there, waiting for them. "Come on, come on! We're gonna be late!" she buzzed.

The group made their way to the docks, with Morgan, Robin and Yellowjacket in front, the rest of the wasp Huntress's team in the middle and Donna and Lilo bringing up the rear. Donna leaned in toward Lilo. "What are the odds that this meetup will end up with Morgan blowing an absolute gasket on Yellowjacket?" she whispered.

Lilo sighed. "Based on his behavior over the past week and provided Yellowjacket keeps this up? I'd say it's near certain that he'll explode within a couple hours. Maybe one. More likely one, honestly. This was always going to end in disaster."

If Lilo was to be completely honest, Yellowjacket creeped him out. The way she buzzed her wings, her odd obsession with Morgan, her seemingly bipolar attitude. He knew the last one was symptomatic of borderline personality disorder, but bipolar was easier to say. Either way, there was something about her that made his skin crawl.

Donna nodded at his statement. "Yeah, I thought so. I really don't trust her."

Lilo narrowed his eyes as they kept walking. As they climbed onto a Bullhead and told the pilot where they wanted to go, he couldn't help but think about the night before Initiation.

* * *

*Monday night, five days ago*

Lilo had lost track of Donna again. Seriously, every time he would turn away for two seconds, she would somehow manage to disappear! He rolled his eyes in annoyance and set his things up next to hers and started to read, waiting for his childhood friend.

The book he was reading was really quite interesting, it was about the differing species in the corvid family, things like crows, ravens, rooks and jays, where they lived, what they ate, interesting tidbits like that. He was reading a particularly interesting passage on a species in the genus Cyanopica when he heard a slight buzzing and someone clearing their throat.

"Ahem." It was definitely a female voice. He closed his book and looked up. She was a wasp Faunus, a few inches taller than average but also shorter than him. She had wavy, shoulder length blond hair and coal black eyes with an unnerving glint to them. She wore a pale yellow strapless nightgown that barely extended past her midthigh. The girl's expression was very cold.

Lilo hesitated. "…yes? Can I… help you?"

She scoffed, leaned down and stuck her face into his. "Yeah. Get out of this spot, jackass. I was saving it for me and my friend." she said as she buzzed her wings aggressively.

He wasn't too worried about her, she looked light enough that his wind blasts would throw her flight into disarray, besides, he was the one who picked out this spot and it was empty when they got there. Which he did try to explain.

"I'm sorry, but there wasn't anything here when me and my friend got here. There's an empty spot over there if you-" He was interrupted by her slapping him across the face. It happened within a split second, too quick for him to react.

"_No_! I don't _want_ that spot! I want _this one_! Move! _Now_!" she demanded.

Lilo narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. "Hell no! Me and my friend got here first! It's not my fault you don't understand that. Now, get out of here before I blast you across the room." he said.

This turned out to be the wrong thing to say as the girl's face contorted into untold amounts of rage and suckerpunched him in the gut with that same blazing speed as before and with a surprising amount of strength, enough to completely wind him.

She was now hovering over him and she drew her fist back to punch him again. She cried out in pain when Donna came out of nowhere and sent a small spark of lightning into one of the Faunus's wings, rendering it useless for the time being. She crashed to the ground just in front of Lilo. The tanned heiress picked the Faunus up by the throat and hoisted her up to her eye level, their faces a few inches apart.

"Listen here, you bug-winged waste of oxygen. You hit my friend with your filthy Faunus mits again and I am going to totally fry you. Understand?!" she demanded, sparks of electrical energy playing across her hair.

The wasp girl nodded and managed to squirm out of Donna's iron grip and flew off into the crowd of students. Donna glared at her retreating form with narrowed eyes and lightning playing across her body.

She turned back to Lilo with a concerned expression. "Lilo! Are you okay, are you hurt?!"

He shook his head. "No, I'm fine. My Aura took the hit, I just got winded. She was damn fast and decently strong, at least for someone on my level."

Donna shook her head as she saw the red mark on his face caused by the girl's slap. "I swear, we ought to report that Faunus. She had no business hitting a human like that. Thinking she's on the same level as us, it's pathetic, really." she growled.

Lilo sighed. He really didn't like when Donna talked like that but he knew Neptunia had essentially brainwashed her daughter into believing this stuff. He was also glad his own parents weren't as conservative as Donna's and treated Faunus with at least a modicum of respect.

"Donna, it's okay, really. I'm not hurt and I think she got the message. There's no need to start a second Great War over it." he said.

Donna looked unsure but let it go.

* * *

*Present day*

Lilo all but glared at the wasp Faunus across from him, not believing this cutesy act for one second. Said Faunus girl was attempting to make Morgan's hair have a modicum of tidiness, a fruitless effort on the whole and much to the displeasure of Team MRLD's leader.

Ble, Flame and Royal were talking amongst each other, Robin was barely holding in her mirth watching Yellowjacket and Morgan and Donna was polishing one of her bracers.

Lilo's mind was going a mile a second, going through scenario after scenario but, try as he might, he couldn't figure out why Yellowjacket would be so enamoured with Morgan. By all accounts, the two were incompatible. Maybe it was purely because of Morgan's physique, which was possible but Lilo doubted it. There had to be something else but he couldn't think of it.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when the Bullhead touched down on the Vale side of the dock. The eight students thanked the pilot and climbed out of the aircraft and headed to their destination in the same formation as before.

Lilo and Donna could hear Yellowjacket go on and on about how much fun this improv thing was going to be, how this was going to be so great, etc, etc. Lilo couldn't help but roll his eyes. _Improv? Really? Of all the things in the world to do on a Saturday morning, she chooses _improv_?! Is she just overly dramatic or is she planning something with this_? he wondered.

After a few minutes of walking with Yellowjacket jabbering in the background, they finally reached the place. It was rather small but inviting, the storefront painted a dark, warm brown. It looked more like a coffee shop than an improv studio, actually. Lilo checked the store's sign, which read, "Miss Senna's Coffee and Creativity".

Lilo shook his head and smirked. _Well, this is definitely going to get interesting_. he thought. He wasn't sure how Morgan was going to react to this exact setting but he was confident in guessing that the cozy nature of a cafe would somewhat calm him down and at least delay the inevitable explosion of pure fire and rage.

The eight walked through the door and were greeted by a middle aged woman with tan skin, black hair and warm amber eyes. She wore a cream colored apron over a light brown short sleeved button up with a copper colored tie, a dark brown skirt over black leggings and taupe colored flats.

"Hello and welcome to Miss Senna's Coffee and Creativity! My name is Senna Jitters, how may I help you today?" she asked with no small amount of warmth and friendliness.

Yellowjacket stepped up. "Hello, Miss Jitters. We-"

Miss Jitters interrupted her, however. "Oh, call me Senna, please! 'Miss Jitters' and 'ma'am' make me feel like such an old lady!" she laughed.

Yellowjacket continued, a little unsure of herself this time. "Um… okay. We would like to purchase tickets for the improvisation workshop, please."

Miss Senna looked over the group. "Okay, may I see your IDs to verify your age, please?" she asked politely.

The eight students all handed over their Scrolls. She checked them all quickly and handed them back. "Okay, since you're all under 18, ticket price is 6 Lien ($30) per person. Weapons and armor in the cubbies near the front door, as well, please."

They all handed her the bills, with Yellowjacket insisting to pay for Morgan, much to his displeasure, his gold eyes adopting a bloody tint. They all walked in, dropped off their weapons and armor in the designated area and were directed by Miss Senna to a small stage near the back by the counter.

The workshop was actually pretty pleasant, with Miss Senna giving a few pointers to everyone there. They did a few group scenes that Lilo found pretty fun, nothing too difficult, things like a bunch of kids in class, etc.

Then, Miss Senna decided to let them all do one on one scenarios and Yellowjacket, taking on the role of leader of the group, deliberated with Miss Senna about who would be in which group, which group would get which scene and Lilo was immediately on edge. He wasn't sure what she could cook up in that head of hers but he was sure that it would end in disaster.

* * *

Robin POV

Yellowjacket and Miss Senna came back and decided that the pairs were thus: Robin with Priscilla, Donna with Scorch, Lilo with Alex and Morgan with Yellowjacket. They also said that each pair would only get their scenes right before their turn to go on. Robin was… unsure of this strategy's potential for success but she was a ninja, not an actor.

Miss Senna called both Robin and Priscilla to the stage and gave them a slip of paper with the scenario. Robin was to be a hairdresser and Priscilla was a famous celebrity in need of a touchup. Not bad for Robin, she often did Aka's hair.

Robin pulled a chair from the counter onto the stage and stood beside it and waited for Priscilla to make her move.

The Faunus girl made her way over to the chair and sat down. "Hello, miss. I would like for you to do my hair, if you please."

Robin cocked an eyebrow. "Hmm. Do you have any preferences on the style, Miss Royal?" she asked.

Priscilla shook her head. "No, whatever you think looks good. Personally, I think I could do with a new look." she replied while also sending back a look that warned her not to do anything too drastic to her hair.

Robin couldn't blame her. Priscilla's shoulder waist hair was done up in elaborate ringlets that must have taken a while to put in. _Hmm. What to do with her hair that she can take out really quickly, won't mess it up and will look good_? she thought.

Robin gently took hold of a few ringlets and combed through Priscilla's hair with her fingers, taking great care to not accidentally hurt her sensitive ears. Her hair was incredibly soft and silky. She gathered a few bunches of hair and started to weave them together. She alternated the bunches again and again and eventually finished a thin braid on the back of her head that resembled a cat's tail and left her bangs and the sides free flowing.

Robin took a picture of her handiwork with her Scroll and showed it to Priscilla. The Faunus girl widened her eyes in shock. "That is… very nicely done! Thank you, miss! I believe I may keep this style." she stated as she stood up from the chair and handed the Scroll back.

They made a bit more pointless small talk and signaled the end of the scene soon after. Miss Senna came up on the stage and congratulated them on a well done scene. "That was perfect! Miss Priscilla was haughty yet polite and even gracious in the end, Miss Robin was perfectly respectful, adapted well and crafted a wonderful braid! Have you done this before?"

Robin shrugged. "Yes and no. I've braided my younger sister's hair before but I haven't tried this style before. I wasn't even sure it would turn out this well." she admitted.

Priscilla ran her hands up and down her new orchid colored braid. "Well, I think it turned out very well. I wasn't just playing the character when I said I'd keep the style, Miss Birdie. You'll have to show me how you did this later." she said.

Robin blushed and smiled. "T-thank you! Hopefully I can do it again."

* * *

Donna POV

After Robin's scene with Royal, Miss Senna called Donna and Flame up to the stage and handed them the prompt. The heiress was to be a manager for an important company and Flame an employee that had fucked up one too many times and had to be terminated. Donna grinned almost evilly. She was going to have fun with this.

The Mistralan sat in the chair from the previous scene and pretended to work from her Scroll by just typing out nonsense in a word doc. After a bit, Flame came back up to the stage, having left to set the scene and mimed knocking on an office door.

He pretended to hesitate. "You… wanted to see me, Miss Marigold?"

Donna cocked an eyebrow. _Marigold? Really? Did he get that from my team's name? It fits in any case_. she thought. She cleared her throat. "Yes, I did, Mister Mahony. Please, come in." she said, gesturing to walk through the nonexistent doorframe, putting her Scroll away.

He did so and stood in front of her. She cleared her throat again. "It has come to my attention that you have said some things that some might find… controversial. And that this is not an isolated event. Would you care to… elaborate?" she prompted.

Flame rolled his eyes. "I don't think what I said was _that_ bad, really."

Donna pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "You called an important client, and I quote, 'an old sheep eared crone'. You call that _not that bad_?! You have potentially lost this company, not only the client, but also millions of Lien in _lost revenue_ and _legal fees_! As I said before, this is not the first time you've said discriminatory remarks such as these. I am not only receiving _numerous_ complaints from your coworkers, but my superiors, the company's _Board of Directors_ are clamoring for me to _fire_ you! If you have an explanation, any at all, that will prevent me from doing so, I am all. Ears." she mock threatened.

Flame's eyes were almost comically wide. Clearly, he was not expecting Donna to perfectly emulate an angry manager. "Um… to be fair, she was insulting me first. She wasn't exactly the most pleasant client to work with. I was attempting to rein it in because I knew how important landing the deal would have been but then she called me a bootlicking suck up for being polite and… I admit… I kinda got a little angry." he explained.

Donna pretended to twitch her eyebrow. "You… got a little angry?" she stage whispered. She inhaled deeply. "I'm told you yelled so loud it practically shook the damn _walls_! Is that _really_ your _best excuse_?! She called you a suck up and you got _angry_?! Well, I have news for you, Mister Mahony, because you are hereby _terminated_ from this company, effective _immediately_, you will collect your final pay check at the end of the week. I am sick and _tired_ of receiving complaints about you, so I am removing the issue. Pack up your desk _now_, I want you out of this building in _two hours_, do I make myself _clear_?!" she bellowed, channeling more than a bit of her mother's personality and pointing to the direction Flame had come from.

Flame was very shocked at the sudden explosion from Donna. The two Hunters held their position for a few moments before simultaneously bursting into laughter. "Oh my _gods_, that was so crazy over the top, the _hell_ was that?!" Flame asked.

The tanned Huntress shook her head, still howling. "I have no idea!" she cried out.

Miss Senna climbed up onto the stage. "I wish you would've kept character because it was amazing while it lasted. Donna, you sounded like you'd done that before!"

Donna wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "No, no, I haven't, but I _have_ heard more than a few of my mother's angry rants on the Scroll. You would not believe the stupid things she's had to fire people over. Oh, that was _fun_! I should pretend to fire people more often."

"Boo! Too much yelling!" Lilo cried from off stage.

Donna whipped her head toward him and flipped him off. "Fuck you! You're just jealous cause you couldn't do a scene like that!" she teased.

Miss Senna narrowed her eyes. "I will tolerate many things, but the f-word and the middle finger are two things I won't. Don't do it again."

Donna had the decency to look shameful. "Sorry, Miss Senna… I won't do it again."

Miss Senna nodded. "Next scene!"

* * *

Lilo POV

Lilo took one look at the scene he'd be doing with Ble and immediately had several questions. "Yellowjacket! What in the flying hell?!" he exclaimed.

Said wasp Faunus rolled her eyes and hovered over to the stage. "Yes, Era? What is it?"

Lilo narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "Ehre." he corrected. "Furthermore, this scene choice is just plain stupid! Why is Ble the dad, why am I the son? Why am I-?!" he started.

"Let me stop you right there, Era." she interrupted.

"It's-!"

"Yes and. I don't really care about your opinions on this scene. I think it fits and you didn't exactly stop me earlier when I was picking it. Besides, you pissed me off Monday night, so I think you deserve to squirm a bit. You made this bed, Era, now you have to lie in it." she said before walking off.

Lilo was about to explode. "I'm gonna fucking kill her." he said under his breath. He turned on his heel and walked back towards the stage, where Ble was sitting in the chair, absentmindedly playing on his Scroll. "Father!" he said, starting the scene.

"Yeah? What is it, son?" Ble asked, still on his Scroll, pretending to not listen. Honestly, Lilo was pretty sure he wasn't really acting at this point.

Lilo rolled his eyes and grumbled. "You could at least pay attention to me, you know." he griped. He was just stalling at this point. He really didn't want to do this scene.

Ble rolled his eyes as well but put his Scroll away and faced him. "Alright, kiddo. I'm paying attention. What did you want to talk about?" he said calmly.

Lilo sighed. "Father, I've put a lot of thought into this and I really think you must know. I am… done with this stupid scene!" he half screamed.

Yellowjacket buzzed her wings threateningly. "Stay in character, Era!" she chastised.

Lilo whipped around to face her. "I will not! First off, my name is Ehre, dammit! Second, I am not at all comfortable with this scene because I'm not gay! I am straight! I'm not homophobic, quite the opposite, really! I support gay rights all the way. I am just uncomfortable portraying a character designed to humiliate me! I know it's designed that way because you practically confirmed it for me! 'Besides, you pissed me off Monday night, so I think you deserve to squirm a bit'? Really? That's a _direct_ quote, by the way! I'm not playing your godsdamned game, Yellowjacket. I refuse." he said walking off the stage and sitting next to Donna.

* * *

Morgan POV

Morgan was _pissed_. He knew that Yellowjacket was a piece of shit but that was ridiculous. He was about to call his team to leave but Robin put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her.

"Make her pay." she mouthed.

The tiger Faunus bared his teeth in a feral grin. Lilo wasn't the only one who could fuck with Yellowjacket's game like that. The two Faunus walked up onto the stage and Yellowjacket handed him the prompt. She was glaring at Lilo, who was glaring right back.

_A thinks B is cheating on him/her_. Morgan's grin widened. This was gonna be _fun_. "Hey. I'll be B." he said.

Yellowjacket's expression cleared up. "Really? Okay! Let's start the scene." she said cheerfully. Morgan just nodded and the other Faunus buzzed off stage. The male Faunus sat down in the chair and waited.

A little bit later, Yellowjacket hovered back on and mimed slamming a door. Morgan looked up. "Hey, _honey_. How was work?" he asked, putting as much venom into the word 'honey' as was physically possible.

She looked like a stray puppy someone kicked. The act didn't work on Morgan, though. "It was fine… I have to ask you something, though." she said, tears welling up. Real tears. Morgan was absolutely disgusted with her.

He sighed. "…sure. What is it." he deadpanned, not even putting any effort into it.

"Are… are you cheating on me?" she asked.

Morgan nodded. "Yep." he said simply.

Yellowjacket went from hangdog to shocked, tears slowing down just a little. "What?" she asked, seemingly unable to process what Morgan had said.

"I said, 'yep'. I have been for over a year. I was wondering how long it would take you to notice it." he said, grin growing wider and wider with each word.

Her tears started to fall in earnest, now. "W-who? Who is it?!" she demanded.

The tiger Faunus laughed, a low and harsh sound. "It would be easier to say who I _didn't_ do it with!" he sneered.

"W-what?!" she said again.

Morgan kept on laughing. "I've been sleeping with as many women I could, hoping you'd find out, just to hurt you! You are a vain, shallow, _vile_ creature and I never loved you at all. I only married you so my parents would shut up! I'm tired of putting on the act every day." he growled.

Yellowjacket was stammering, her brain misfiring left and right trying to process this onslaught. "B-but, what about our wedding night?! We made love-!"

Morgan interrupted with more laughing. "Love?! Really?! That wasn't love, you silly girl! That was me getting it over with so I didn't have to keep touching you! Honestly, the only reason I could keep it up was because I was thinking about someone else! It disgusts me you actually received pleasure from that! You're physically appealing, yeah, but your personality makes me want to hurl! Like I said, you are vain, shallow and vile. You are a disgusting waste of oxygen and I want nothing more to do with you. I've already packed the things I want. I'm leaving. You'll be hearing from my lawyer soon enough." he said, walking off the stage.

He could hear her wings buzzing louder and louder. He felt her Aura spike and he whipped around. He caught her punch easily. Her face was a contorted mask of rage mixed in with tears. "I'm going to make you pay for saying that!" she screamed.

He shook his head. "No. You won't." The feline Huntsman kneed her in the gut and kicked her legs out from under her, knocking her onto the floor. She made to get up but he planted a booted foot on her chest. "Here's the thing, you bug winged nuisance. I can smell the arousal on you. I know you just want to use me to sate your own desires and nothing else. I'm not a plaything. Leave me and my team alone." he snarled.

He lifted his foot and turned away. "MRLD! We're leaving. Thank you, Miss Senna, for the workshop. I'm sorry Yellowjacket ruined it." he apologized.

He and his team gathered their armor and weapons and left the cafe/studio. The two pairs of partners made their goodbyes, with Donna and Lilo heading back to the school while Robin and Morgan headed deeper into Vale. They walked in silence for a few minutes. Morgan's eyes, which had turned scarlet during the scene, slowly faded back to gold.

He was scanning the storefronts, looking for a particular shop. Robin finally spoke up. "Are you mad at me? It's fine if you are."

He glanced at her. "Why would I be mad at you, Robin?"

She hung her head in shame. "I made us come out here. I didn't have to do that."

Morgan shook his head. "Nah, it's okay. I actually liked the workshop. I'd like to come out here again sometime. It wasn't your fault Yellowjacket is such a bitch. I'm mad at her for trying to humiliate Lilo and use me. Not you. You didn't know she was gonna do that. Ain't your fault." he said. He finally found what he was looking for.

"Here it is." he said, pointing at the face of the building.

Robin squinted. "A… library?" she asked.

The feline Huntsman nodded. "Yep. I like to come out here to read. I like how quiet it is. No one bothers me here. It's just me and the books for hours. I found the inspiration for my weapons here." he explained.

Robin cocked an eyebrow. "Really? What was the inspiration?"

Morgan smiled. "I read the stories of the Hero Arc so many times. I loved the tales of him using his weapons, Crocea Mors, to bash through Grimm hordes and armies of humans. I wanted to be like that. Sword in hand, shield on my arm, invincible! I even named my shield to match. 'Scutum Murus'. It means 'shield wall'. My sword I named 'Lamina de Iram', meaning 'blade of rage'. It's obvious where that comes from. Back on track, though. I wish I could've met the Hero Arc." he sighed.

They walked into the library and made their way up to the loft. They read random books for hours, just enjoying each other's company. Morgan of course read stories about great warriors fighting through hordes of enemies without a single thought while Robin read books about families being happy and working through less physical issues. Morgan found it… fun to spend time with her like that. Fighting was fun for him and it made him happy but he also enjoyed the quiet moments in between.

*Monday, after classes*

Morgan and Robin made their way up to Professor Greene's office. The feline fighter was still nervous. Robin put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay, Morgan. This is to help you control your Semblance. You don't have to be nervous about it. Professor Greene is going to help you the best she can, okay?" she reassured.

He nodded silently. The pair reached the office door and knocked. They heard a muted "Come in!" from the other side and walked in. Greene was sitting at her desk, presumably grading papers.

Greene was rather tall. She was pale and was covered in freckles. Her hair was ginger, her eyes were a bright green. Even though she was sitting down, Morgan knew she wore an old fashioned white blouse, a brown leather vest, black leather pants and grey combat boots. Her expansive brown and white feathered eagle wings were folded on her back.

She looked up. "Ah, Mister Rubrum, Miss Tori. Do you have a problem with the coursework or another issue?" she asked.

Morgan tried to calm his nerves. "I'm here because of Professor Ozpin's suggestion. I've decided to accept."

The other Faunus nodded in appreciation. "Okay. Let's get started, then."

* * *

AN: Shit, that took awhile! I want to pose something. I want to write a spinoff of this with Wasperia as the main perspective character. I want to see if you guys are interested. Also, I feel it is now necessary for a height chart for MRLD. Morgan is 6'06", Robin is 5'06", Lilo is 5'10", Donna is 6'04". Next one will have very important story bits!

Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!


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